Thermal Management Of Electronic Equipment Research Articles

Design of CuS composite carbon-based Ni Al-LDH multifunctional phase change composite with electromagnetic shielding performance and heat storage capacity

CuS-based composites are widely used in the fields related to photothermal energy storage and electromagnetic shielding and are excellent candidates for composites with phase change materials. To meet the requirements of micro-integration and electromagnetic resistance of electronic products and optimize the thermal management of electronic products, it is necessary to prepare new flexible composite phase change materials. In this paper, through the design of MPC@Ni Al-LDH/CuS double-layer structure, two-step vacuum filtration method is used, and the highly conductive materials CuS and MPC are introduced into the manufacture of PCM films. With the help of Ni Al-LDH, flame retardancy is introduced. The electromagnetic wave absorption performance is enhanced, and the existence of nano-cellulose (CNF) makes the film have excellent mechanical properties. Ni Al-LDH/MPC and CuS substrates with stable and high mechanical properties are prepared by ultrasonic treatment. According to scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG) characterizations, PEG successfully entered the MPC/CuS skeleton by vacuum filtration, and flexible phase change composite bilayers (MLPC) were obtained. Due to the synergistic effect of structure and components, the obtained composite film has many different excellent functions. Specifically, when MPC@Ni Al-LDH is 15 wt%, the phase transition enthalpy, thermal conductivity, electromagnetic shielding, and electrical conductivity are 146.8 J/g, 1.07 W/m·K, 38.8 dB and 126.4 S/m, respectively. The 3600 s infrared temperature measurement results show that the sample has stable thermal properties. Due to the presence of CuS, when MPC@Ni Al-LDH is 5 wt%, its absorbance can be kept at 1.51 L/(g·cm), and its photothermal conversion efficiency can reach 90.6 %. The MPC/CuS structure in the composite film provides many heat transfer channels, which reduces the phonon scattering in the heat transfer process and significantly increases thermal conductivity. Therefore, this multifunctional flexible phase change film can be used in photothermal conversion devices and for thermal management of electronic equipment, and it has broad application prospects in wearable equipment design due to its excellent electromagnetic shielding ability and infrared thermal stealth ability.

Porous carbon network-based composite phase change materials with heat storage capacity and thermal management functions

Porous carbon network-based phase change composites have been widely used in energy storage and thermal management related fields. At present, the demand of energy crisis for photothermal energy storage and the prevention and management of thermal abuse of electronic equipment constantly promote the development of carbon-based composite phase change materials (PCMs). Therefore, a series of new composite materials filled with PCMs and polyethylene glycol (PEG) and added with flame-retardant magnesium hydroxide were developed, which makes the composites show certain flame-retardant ability in high-temperature environments. The results show that the thermal conductivity increases from 0.25 to 0.94 W/m·K, and the latent heat of phase change remains at 142.7 J/g. In addition, due to the capillary effect caused by the synergistic effect of multi-pore carbon (MPC) structure and cellulose macromolecular chain, the composite material has good shape stability, which effectively prevents the leakage behavior of PCMs during solid-liquid phase change. Moreover, the absorbance of the composite material can reach 1.28 L/(g cm) in the ultraviolet–visible light range of 200 nm–800 nm, and its photothermal conversion efficiency can reach 90.8 %. Therefore, this material has a broad application prospect in the thermal management of electronic equipment and photothermal energy storage devices.

A graphene nanoflake-based flexible composite phase change material for enhanced heat dissipation in chip cooling

Efficient heat dissipation is a key requirement for stable performance retention and failure prevention of microelectronic components. In practical applications, the interface thermal resistance between the component and the heat dissipation unit affects the heat dissipation effect. Thermal interface materials (TIM) are used to fill the voids at the solid interface between the device and the heat sink to create a thermally conductive path for heat dissipation. Phase change materials (PCMs) are candidates as TIM for next-generation electronic devices due to their excellent latent heat storage. However, some inherent problems of PCMs, such as low thermal conductivity, high solid-state rigidity, and easy leakage, also limit their application in the thermal management of electronic equipment. This study prepared a biomass cotton cloth substrate with a woven structure attached to graphite nanosheets and further constructed a thermally conductive matrix through drying or high-temperature carbonization. Through the composite of thermally conductive matrix and paraffin wax (PW), a flexible phase change thermal interface composite material was obtained. The phase change enthalpy of composite materials is as high as 157.7 J/g. The thermal conductivity of the composite material is 293.7 % higher than that of pure PW. On its excellent flexibility and structural strength, the composite material can better adapt to the thermal interface, reduce contact thermal resistance, and thus achieve good leakage resistance. The flexible phase-change TIM developed in this study have broad application prospects in the fields of chip heat dissipation and thermal management of wearable electronic devices.

Enhanced interface heat transfer based on gallium-based liquid metal infiltrated into vertically aligned copper nanowire arrays

Owing to the high aspect ratio and thermal conductivity, copper nanowires have great potential as novel thermal conductivity fillers. However, the thermal conductivity of thermal interface materials (TIMs) prepared by copper nanowires with polymer matrices is low. In contrast, gallium-based liquid metal has a higher thermal conductivity than polymer, while it is difficult to wet copper nanowires with liquid metal to prepare the TIMs. In this study, TIMs with a thickness of 53 µm were prepared by forming a galvanic cell between gallium-based liquid metal and vertically aligned copper nanowire arrays to improve wettability, and the heat transfer performance of the TIMs was experimentally investigated. The results show that the total thermal contact resistance of the composite thermal interface material is as low as 3.20 ± 0.24 mm2K/W. Compared with commercial thermal grease, the total thermal contact resistance is reduced by 86.30 %. The total thermal contact resistance increases with the surface roughness as the actual contact area decreases. In HCl/CuSO4 solution, the wettability of gallium-based liquid metal on the surface of vertically aligned copper nanowire arrays was improved, and the contact angle was 10.1 ± 0.9°. Furthermore, after 360 h of ageing, the total thermal contact resistance of the sample increased by 0.57 mm2K/W. This study provides new directions for designing high-performance TIMs with excellent overall heat transfer properties for the thermal management of electronic equipment.

Analysis of the thermal management of electronic equipment byemploying silicon carbide nano-pcm-based heat sink.

Electrical and electronic equipment like light bulbs, computing systems, gaming systems, DVD players, and drones experiences heat generation during extensive use. The heat energy should be liberated to ensure uninterrupted performance and prevent premature failure of the devices. This study uses an experimental setup of the heat sink, phase change material, silicon carbide nanoparticles, thermocouple, and data acquisition system to control heat generation and increase heat lost to the surroundings in electronic equipment. The silicon carbide nanoparticles are mixed in varying compositions, i.e., 1wt.%, 2wt.%, and 3wt.%, in paraffin wax as the phase change material. The influence of the heat input (15W, 20W, 35W, and 45W) through the plate heater is also studied. The operating temperature of the heat sink was allowed to fluctuate between 45 and 60°C while experimenting. The fluctuation in the temperature of the heat sink was recorded to monitor and compare the charging, dwell, and discharging periods in the heat sink. It is observed that increasing the percentage composition of silicon carbide nanoparticles in the paraffin wax resulted in increasing the peak temperature and the dwell period of the heat sink. Increasing the heat input above 15W benefited in controlling the duration of the thermal cycle. It is inferred that high heat input is beneficial in enhancing the heating period, while the percentage composition of silicon carbide in the PCM benefits by increasing the heat sink's peak temperature and dwell period. It is concluded that high heat input, i.e., 45W, is beneficial in enhancing the heating period, while the percentage composition of silicon carbide in the PCM benefits by increasing the heat sink's peak temperature and dwell period.

Dynamic thermal management of flashing spray cooling by the frequency conversion of compressor

Dynamic thermal management of electronic equipment is of practical importance to adapt to the quickly changed heat load at local spot. A closed-loop experimental system was constructed to study the heat transfer mechanism and cooling performance of flashing spray cooling by R410A on a smooth flat copper surface in steady-state and varying operating conditions, especially the effect of frequency conversion of compressor. The results indicated that the superheat of 4 ℃ and 22 ℃ can be regarded as the transition points between three heat transfer stages of steady R410A flashing spray cooling: single-phase heat transfer, nucleate boiling, and transition boiling. To achieve the best cooling performance, superheat should be between 4 ℃ and 22 ℃ to keep heat transfer in stage II. The increase of compressor frequency can improve the cooling performance of spray system effectively. When the compressor frequencies are 10 Hz, 15 Hz and 20 Hz, CHF can reach 162.9, 168.3 and 175.0 W/cm2, and the maximum heat transfer coefficient is around 60.5, 80.6, and 90.4 kW/(m2·K), separately, with surface temperature below 35 ℃, 30 ℃ and 25 ℃. At the same heat flux, the power consumptions for the system to reach steady-state at 15 Hz and 20 Hz are 12.2% lower but 5.9% higher than that at 10 Hz, which provides a feasible energy-saving strategy for spray cooling system in the practical thermal management of electronic equipment.

Wettability and thermal contact resistance of thermal interface material composited by gallium-based liquid metal on copper foam

As a promising thermal interface material (TIM), gallium-based liquid metal (GBLM) could significantly reduce the thermal contact resistance (TCR) at the solid-solid interfaces, while the leakage of GBLM and the wettability between liquid metal and solid surface restrict further application. In this study, the GBLM was wrapped with a copper foam (CF) skeleton, which prevents leakage and improves the thermal conductivity of the GBLM. Gallium-based liquid metal-copper foam (GBLM-CF) TIM was prepared by the self-wetting of the CF surface through the galvanic corrosion of GBLM. As the concentration of HCl increases from 0 to 5 M, the interfacial tension (IFT) in the HCl solution decreases from 536.80±1.00 mN/m to 481.52±0.49 mN/m, demonstrating that the IFT of the GBLM is inversely proportional to the concentration of HCl. Meanwhile, the decrease of contact angle (CA) by 8° indicates that the presence of CuGa2 on the surface promotes the wettability of GBLM. With the increase of external pressure and the improvement of wettability, the TCR between the GBLM and the copper sheet decreased by 58.28%. The TCR of the sample using GBLM-CF as TIM is 83% lower than that of thermal grease. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of GBLM-CF TIM (51.58±0.01 W/(m·K)) is 212.6% higher than that of GBLM (16.50±0.02 W/(mK)). The GBLM-CF TIM presented in this study can be used for the efficient thermal management of electronic equipment.

Optimized Preparation of a Low-Working-Temperature Gallium Metal-Based Microencapsulated Phase Change Material

Gallium has been considered for application in the thermal management of electronic equipment because of its high heat transfer ability and heat storage density. To address the issues of metal corrosion and leakage, a microencapsulation method, through which a stable corrosion-resistant ceramic shell can be formed from the liquid metal, is proposed. In this study, an optimized fabrication method for a microencapsulated phase change material (MEPCM) consisting of liquid-state Ga droplets, possessing high durability and heat storage density, is presented. A fabrication route comprising particle formation, hydrothermal treatment, and calcination is proposed. In particular, the thickness and crystal size of the GaOOH shell are controlled by changing the pH during hydrothermal treatment to produce a highly durable shell. The morphology and microstructure, phase composition, heat storage capacity, and durability of the prepared Ga-MEPCM are investigated. In addition, treatment conditions and the shell formation mechanism are analyzed. The results show that pH 9 is the most suitable shell-forming condition, at which the thickest Ga2O3 shell with the smallest crystal size can be produced, which is beneficial for ensuring durability. The MEPCM achieved 200 cycles without leakage and 300 cycles without shape deformation with a high heat storage density of 369.4 J·cm–3.

Thermal energy storage properties, thermal conductivity, chemical/and thermal reliability of three different organic phase change materials doped with hexagonal boron nitride

Myristic acid (MA), Lauric Acid (LA) and Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) are promising organic Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for Thermal Energy Storage (TES). However, low thermal conductivity (TC) negatively affects their heat transfer efficiency during the heat storage/release periods in TES systems. In this regard, hexagonal Boron Nitride (h-BN) was chosen as a filler for TC enhancement. The present study targets to improve the TC of MA, LA and PEG by adding h-BN nanoparticle at different weight amounts, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2 %, along with a systematic examination of other chemical and thermal properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/Energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results demonstrated that the dispersion of h-BN in the PCMs was fairly homogeneous and had no damaging influence on their chemical/crystalline structures. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results indicated that the addition of h-BN (2wt%) marginally shifted their phase change temperatures and slightly decreased the LHS capacities compared to pure PCMs. The h-BN/PCM composites exhibited good chemical stability and thermal reliability after 500 heating/cooling cycles. The addition of h-BN (2 wt%) resulted in 1.40, 1.27 and 1.30 times-enhancement in TC values of MA, LA and PEG, respectively. This improvement was also displayed in the T-History curves. All findings revealed that 2 wt% h-BN addition could be enough for satisfactory TC enhancement without affecting the LHS properties of the selected PCMs significantly. Thus, h-BN enhanced PCMs could be used for thermal management of electronic equipment, solar collectors, solar PV systems and domestic water heating systems etc.

Radiative cooling gray paint with high solar reflectance for thermal management of electronic equipment

Colored appearance is an ongoing pursue for the devising of radiative cooling paint (RCP), while the inevitable absorption of solar radiation remains a huge hurdle to meet the threshold of RCP under intense sunlight. Gray is one of the most common color for the equipment appearance in the industrial design, but rarely works have been made to explore the potential of gray radiative cooling paint integrated on the engineering equipment. Herein, we utilize the poly (vinylidene fluoridehexafluoropropylene)-acrylic (PVDF-HFP-PMMA) containing yttria particle and commercial dye to fabricate radiative cooling gray paint (RCGP). The porous structure in paint endows an effective light scattering of sunlight, and the high refractive index and wide bandgap of yttria further promote the reflection of visible light. As a result, the RCGP with a grayscale value of 237 exhibits a high reflectance beyond 0.89 in solar waveband and a high emittance over 0.96 in the atmospheric transparence window (ATW, 8–13 μm). We theoretically and experimentally explore the cooling potential of RCGP on a heat sink module of outdoor base station, yielding a distinctive temperature drop beyond 10 ℃. Our work provides a feasible strategy for minimizing the adverse effect from the color on the reflective property, and makes tentative and significant exploration of radiative cooling in engineering thermal management.

Thermodynamic analysis of entropy generation in a horizontal pipe filled with high porosity metal foams

In the field of thermal management of electronic equipment , examining entropy generation properties is extremely useful. The entropy production experiments have been expanded to porous media using high porosity metal foams. The entropy production/generation for forced convection heat transfer in a tube is quantified via a numerical research. In the field of air stream direction, the horizontal pipe is entirely filled with nickel metal foam of 0.6 m length. For the isotropic porous metal foam zone, the Darcy-extended Forchheimer (DEF) flow is used to capture the dynamics of flow and local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model is used for analyzing the heat transport phenomenon, while the k-ɛ turbulent model is used for the non-foam porous region of the tube. The effect of fully filled nickel metallic foam with different pore densities of 10, 20, and 30 metal foam with a porosity of 0.85 is being investigated. The computational solutions presented here are supported by experimental results published in the literature. The outlet exergy of the system rises with higher flow rates and falls with higher metal foam pore densities. The results of entropy generation due to thermal and fluid friction and Bejan number conceptions are also shown and discussed.

Recent advancements in latent heat phase change materials and their applications for thermal energy storage and buildings: A state of the art review

Phase change materials (PCMs) have received substantial interest for their ability to store and release latent heat for energy conservation and thermal control purposes. PCMs are available in a variety of latent heat and melting points but their performance is low due to low value of thermal conductivity which limits its usage. The addition of highly thermal conductivity nanoparticles, porous metal foams and encapsulation methods have been used to address this issue and try to fix the low thermal conductivity of PCMs which is broadly discussed in this manuscript. The ability of PCM to store and release the thermal energy prompted the researchers to use it in potential applications. The energy retained and emitted by PCMs may be used for a variety of purposes, such as in photovoltaic (PV) panels, thermoelectric generators, building air-conditioning, air and water heating systems, heat exchangers, desalination solar stills, textiles, thermal management of electronic equipment and batteries and food packaging. Therefore, in this review, first the advancements in thermal properties of PCMs are thoroughly discussed in terms of enhancement in melting and solidification rates. After that, the use of PCMs in various applications is then explored, and conclusions are drawn accordingly. Based on analysis of recent literature, it was discovered that the phase transition temperature, phase transition enthalpy and thermal conductivity are three important parameters for the selection of an appropriate PCM for use in various applications. The current status of these advanced energy storage materials is also presented in this review. Lastly, some challenges and future recommendation are also proposed for future researchers which will bring a revolution in thermal management field.

Investigation of flow distribution and effect of aspect ratio on critical heat flux in multiple parallel microchannel flow boiling

In this paper, an experimental study on the effect of the low aspect ratio of microchannel on the critical heat flux (CHF) during saturated flow boiling of water is presented. Multiple parallel silicon microchannels with different aspect ratios, hydraulic diameter, and number of channels in the range of 0.2–0.5, 154.0–184.8 μm, and 3–9 respectively are fabricated, and the experiments are performed in the range of mass fluxes 24.1–806.5 kg m−2 s−1. It is found that the CHF is caused by the wall dryout near the microchannel exit. The effect of microchannel aspect ratio with the same hydraulic diameter on the CHF is found to be insignificant. Twenty-five CHF data points are obtained for microchannel flow boiling of water and are compared with the CHF predictive methods reported in the literature. A new CHF correlation is proposed, which predicts the measured CHF with the mean absolute deviation of 12.1%, which is substantially better than available CHF predictive methods. The findings from this study provide guidelines for designing multiple parallel microchannel heat sinks in two-phase flow for the thermal management of electronic equipment, spacecraft, satellites, energy conversion devices, and biomedical engineering.

Experimental investigation on graphene based nanoparticles enhanced phase change materials (GbNePCMs) for thermal management of electronic equipment

Abstract The present study focuses on the thermal management of electronic components using nanoparticles enhanced phase change materials (NePCMs) based heat sinks for the reduction in the baseline temperature, to heighten the operational time and ensure the enhanced functionality and reliability of the working system. RT-44HC and RT-64HC are used as the base PCMs along with the incorporation of GNPs (0.002wt%, 0.005wt% and 0.008wt%) for different heating loads i.e. 0.86 KW/m2, 1.44 KW/m2 and 2.40 KW/m2. Results revealed that after 90 min of charging phase, RT-44HC/GNPs (0.008wt%) has depicted best performance with the maximum reduction of 25% in the baseline temperature for 0.86 KW/m2. Subsequently, at 1.44 KW/m2 RT-44HC/GNPs (0.005wt%) and RT-64HC/GNPs (0.008wt%) have shown maximum reduction of 13.6% and 11.8% respectively. For higher heating load i.e. 2.40 KW/m2 RT-64HC/GNPs has revealed best performance with maximum reduction of 16.37% in the temperature. Hence, for low heating loads, RT-44HC composites are best recommended whereas, RT-64HC composites are suitable for higher power levels and high heating loads.

Optimization of microchannel-based cooling systems

In this article, microchannel systems for cooling applications such as in the thermal management of electronic equipment are investigated and optimized. Numerical simulations are carried out to study the conjugate heat transfer and flow behavior. The numerical model has been validated by comparing with analytical results. Two sets of design variables are evaluated: (Set I) Incoming flow rate and the number of channels and (Set II) Incoming flow rate and heat flux input. Response surfaces are used to represent the thermal and fluid behavior in the microchannel systems. Based on the polynomial response surface (PRS) modeling results, a multi-objective optimization problem is formulated to reduce both pumping power and thermal resistance. Two major practical concerns, hot-spot temperature and pressure difference, serve as optimization constraints. With varying weights on the two conflicting objectives, Pareto frontiers are obtained. It is also shown that an optimal configuration exists under pressure and temperature constraints. This study provides a feasible design domain and optimal solutions for microchannel-based cooling systems. The optimization process can also be applied to different applications of similar thermal systems.

Performance Analysis of Heat Sinks With Phase-Change Materials Subjected to Transient and Cyclic Heating

Phase-change cooling technique is a suitable method for thermal management of electronic equipment subjected to transient or cyclic heat loads. The thermal performance of a phase-change based heat sink under cyclic heat load depends on several design parameters, namely, applied heat flux, cooling heat transfer coefficient, thermophysical properties of phase-change materials (PCMs), and physical dimensions of phase-change storage system during melting and freezing processes. A one-dimensional conduction heat transfer model is formulated to evaluate the effectiveness of preliminary design of practical PCM-based energy storage units. In this model, the phase-change process of the PCM is divided into melting and solidification subprocesses, for which separate equations are written. The equations are solved sequentially and an explicit closed-form solution is obtained. The efficacy of analytical model is estimated by comparing with a finite-volume-based numerical solution for both transient and cyclic heat loads.

Numerical investigations of using carbon foam/PCM/Nano carbon tubes composites in thermal management of electronic equipment

A numerical investigation of predicting thermal characteristics of electronic equipment using carbon foam matrix saturated with phase change material (PCM) and Nano carbon tubes as thermal management modules is presented. To study the effect of insertion of RT65 and Nano carbon tubes in carbon foam matrices of different porosities, three different modules; namely Pure CF-20, CF20+RT65, and CF-20+RT65/Nano carbon modules are numerically tested at different values of carbon foam porosities. Mathematical model is obtained using volume averaging technique based on single-domain energy equation and a control volume based numerical scheme. Interfacial effects influencing heat transfer process at enclosure wall, module surface and different interfacial surfaces within the composite have been addressed. Governing equations have been solved using a CFD code (Thétis, http://thetis.enscbp.fr). Mathematical model is validated by comparing its prediction with previous experimental measurements for pure CF-20 foam and CF-20+RT65 composite modules. The model is used to predict thermal characteristics of CF-20+RT65/Nano carbon tubes composite as a thermal management modules. Results reveal that insertion of RT65/MWCNTs in CF-20 leads to a 11.5% reduction in the module surface temperature for carbon foam porosities less than 75%. The reduction decrease to 7.8% for a porosity of 88%. Numerical results of transient and steady state temperature histories at different depths within the module are compared with previous experimental data and fair agreement is obtained.

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON HEAT SINK BY COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD)

The forced-air cooling technique, one of the effective methods for thermal management of electronic equipment cooling, is commonly used in a conventional-size heat sink. Conventional or mini sized heat sinks are commonly used in many industrial applications as cooling devices, because of their easy serviceability, high reliability, simplicity in the mechanism of heat transfer and ease of testing. In this paper heat sink is designed and investigated for different velocity variation at the inlet to select appropriate fan to cool the heat sink and also effect of ambient conditions on the heat sink are studied. Finally the results are compared with the Computational Fluid Dynamics software FLUENT.

Fluid Flow in a System with Separate Laminar and Turbulent Zones

Attention is focused on physical situations in which separate zones of laminar and turbulent flow coexist within a given device. The specific motivating application for this study is a complex fluid-flow manifold used in the thermal management of electronic equipment. The adopted approach to the solution of this fluid-flow problem was to employ a turbulent-flow model for the entire solution space but to use several turbulence models as inputs. The goal of the study was to quantify the behavior of popular turbulence models in regions where the flow is laminar according to the accepted Reynolds number criteria. Three models were considered: 1) standard k-ϵ, 2) k-ω, and 3) SST. Evaluation of the models was based on the values of the ratio μ t /μ in nominally laminar regions, where μ t and μ are, respectively, the turbulent and molecular viscosities. Values of this ratio well below one in a nominally laminar region would indicate that a turbulence model reduces, in effect, to a laminar model. It was found that the standard k-ϵ model failed to provide values of μ t /μ << 1 for channel Reynolds numbers as low as 370. On the other hand, both the k-ω and SST models yielded values of μ t /μ << 1 for Re = 370. For these models, acceptably small values of the ratio were encountered for Reynolds numbers up to 370. At still higher Reynolds numbers, these turbulence models did not reduce to laminar models. Results for the relationship between the overall pressure drop and the system flowrate are also presented for use in practical applications.

A Quasi-Analytical Method for Fluid Flow in a Multi-Inlet Collection Manifold

This paper sets forth a fully validated quasianalytical method for determining the fluid flow in a multi-inlet collection manifold. The method is based on first principles, which are the conservation laws for mass and momentum. Although it is necessary to use numerical means to extract results from the model, the solution task is accomplished by the use of a spreadsheet, without the need for complex software or large computer assets. The validation of the method was achieved by comparing the key results with those from a numerically exact simulation. The comparison included both local results and global results. For the local results, the accuracy of the model was found to be in the 1% range, while the global results from the model were accurate to about 4%. The investigated manifold was a case study drawn from a problem involving thermal management of electronic equipment, in which an array of coldplates discharged spent air into the manifold. It was found, from both the quasianalytical method and the numerical simulation, that there is a variation in the per-coldplate flowrate due to axial pressure variations in the manifold. These pressure variations can be attributed to the streamwise acceleration of the manifold flow due to the accumulation of the flow entering the manifold from the coldplate array. The utility of the quasianalytical method was further demonstrated by applying it to a number of other cases. In particular, the method was used to design a manifold capable of producing a uniform mass flowrate through all of its ports.