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Natural Convection around a Telecommunications Module

    Table of contents
    1. 1. Topics in this section

    In this exercise, we analyze the air flow and temperature distribution due to natural convection in and around a sealed telecommunications module.

    Several heat-generating components are housed inside an aluminum case. The flow around the module is driven by the buoyancy (temperature-induced density variation) of the air. Fins on the case dissipate heat from the hot components to the surrounding air.

    After opening the module geometry in Autodesk Simulation CFD, we will place it in a large air environment using the External Volume Geometry Tool. Because the device is in an open environment, we will leave the top and bottom of the box open, and assign an ambient temperature to the lower opening.

    Key Topics

    • External natural convection using the "chimney" approach
    • Creation of an external flow volume with the Geometry Tools
    • Incompressible, turbulent, steady state flow
    • Buoyancy-driven flow
    • Total heat generation boundary condition
    • Surface parts to simulate an adhesive layer between components
    • Compact Thermal Model material type
    • Printed circuit board material type and property calculator

    Objectives

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