Air flow and heat transfer study in a computer for domestic use

The influence of computers on several aspects of our lives has been increasing continuously since the last decade. More attention to their safety and persistent operation is deemed necessary and has become an important matter. Personal computers (PCs) play a major role in industrial and domestic applications due to their wide applications. One of the major concerns faced by PCs s is their overheating issue. Overheated PCs might lead to several operational errors and safety problems, and might also lead to the loss of important data which is unable to be recovered in some circumstances. Cooling systems which typically consist of inlet air and exhaust fan play a vital role in removing heat from the main sources of heat generation, such as the motherboard within the PC. This study examines the mechanisms of the cooling process in typical PCs used in the market using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. A number of models have been created using AutoCAD and exported to an ANSYS package, where the fluid flow and thermal performance are investigated. The most realistic models have been identified and subsequent simulation results are conducted and discussed based on these models. Parametric studies by varying flow rates the magnitude of heat fluxes are performed in order to study the thermal characteristics within the PCs under different scenarios. Temperature distribution, which is the main focus in this work, is studied extensively at different air flow rates. Fan modelling is included in this study as the key recommendation to the investigated models. Optimum configuration of fan speed and heat flux is identified and proposed in this thesis.