CFD Simulations of Thermal and Flow Fields Inside a Desktop Personal Computer Cabin with Multi-core Processors

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the cooling of an 80 W and 130 W socketed central processing unit (CPU) of a desktop personal computer. The computations have been performed using the CFD package FLUENT 6.2. The computer system enclosure simulated is a microATX cabin that consists of all major heat generating components such as CPU with an attached heat sink, hard disk drive, CD drive, floppy drive, power supply unit and memory cards. Two different geometries of the heat sink, (1) vertical straight fin and (2) radial curved fin, have been used to enhance heat transfer from the 80 W and 130 W CPUs respectively. The objectives of the present study are (1) to determine the airflow pattern and maximum operating temperature of various components in the desktop computer system enclosure and (2) to investigate the effect of various parameters such as power dissipation of the processor, fan speed, ambient air temperature and the air intake area on the CPU case temperature.