A numerical simulation of conjugate heat transfer in an electronic package formed by embedded discrete heat sources in contact with a porous heat sink

A physical/mathematical model has been developed to simulate the conjugate heat transfer in an actively cooled electronic package. The package consists of a highly conductive substrate with embedded discrete heat sources that are in intimate contact with a porous channel through which a gaseous coolant is circulated The flow in the porous medium is analyzed using the extended Darcy model. The nonequilibrium, two-equation model which accounts for the near wall thermal dispersion effects was used for the heat transfer analysis. The concept of the general energy equation for the entire physical domain was employed as a method of solving numerically the conjugate system. The model has been validated by comparing the predictions with available experimental data for a similar system. A parametric study has been performed to examine the effects of some of the most important model parameters on the thermal performance of porous heat sink.