Heat Management of CPUs in a PCB Using Ansys Discovery - Lesson 4

The printed circuit board in our analysis is placed inside a computer housing. The CPUs and the other chips generate heat while operating, and cooling systems are needed to control their temperatures. Heat sinks can help reduce the temperatures of the chips, but sometimes heat sinks alone are not enough. These housings often have fans that blow cooler air into the housing to replace the air heated by the electronic components. The circulation of air helps improve the heat transfer between the chips and the air, so that more heat is extracted by the air and the operating temperatures are reduced.

In this lesson we will explore how to analyze the airflow inside the geometry we created and predict the operating temperatures of the chips. We will start by learning how to prepare the geometry for such an analysis. Then, we will analyze and compare different designs. Lastly, we will prepare and perform a high-fidelity simulation to predict what temperature each component would reach.

Download the simplified geometry we will use in this lesson here.