Many people undervalue the complex design of their electronic products. Take a look at your TV, tablet, or mobile phone. Consider all of the tasks it can do and how complex the internal design must be. Even the smallest of factors, like heat, need to be controlled and properly managed. Without proper thermal management, the device would be ruined within minutes. Consistent and effective thermal management requires the following characteristics.
A strong cooling system
Thermal management is the process of cooling down a heated piece of technology. If you have ever put your hands near a computer or held your laptop on your lap for too long, you are aware of the level of heat that emits from it. Thermal management requires a strong cooling system. This cooling system has to be designed for the level of heat the device uses. Too strong of a cooling system, for example, could throw off the temperature of the device, overpowering the heat and making it too cold.
Carefully placed heat exchangers
Many electronic devices are made up of multiple electronic pieces. In order for these pieces of technology to efficiently work, the heat must exchange and transfer from each part. There are a few methods of doing this, with the Gaumer process being the most common. The Gaumer process is an updated and innovative method of efficiently transferring heat across pieces.
Heat exchanger designs are constantly changing to keep up with rapidly changing technology and this process is the most recent and currently, the most recognized method of thermal management. Additionally, heat exchanger fluids are often used. When a heat exchanger?s fluids pass each other more than once, the heat exchanger is called a multi pass heat exchanger. If the fluids pass each other only once, the heat exchanger is called a single pass heat exchanger.
Heating up process
In most cases, when an electronic device is turned on, it begins to heat up. This initiation of heat allows each piece to work and then eventually, begins to signal for the cooling process and the heat exchanger design to work. Other devices, however, require manual heating up processes. Again, there are multiple ways to initiate this process, with fuel oil heaters being the most common. Fuel oil heaters have many advantages over other types of heating processes. The three types of heat exchangers are parallel flow or counter flow configuration, cross flow configuration, and shell and tube configuration. The specific method that is used will depend on the technological device at hand and its purpose.
Close proximity design process
For proper heat exchange and thermal management to occur, the layout of the rest of the product needs to be carefully designed. For a heat exchange to occur, for example, the connecting devices need to be within transfer reach. The very close proximity of process fluids within a diffusion bonded heat exchanger core creates an exceptionally high heat transfer rate with correspondingly high efficiencies (up to 98%) and allows close temperature approaches of up to 2oC. If the designer desires a lower heat exchange, they may specifically design the different components to be further apart.
A lot of planning and consideration goes into each and every aspect of a single piece of technology. There are many factors to consider, including the closeness of each part, the cooling properties used, and how the heat will be exchanged between different pieces. Thermal management is important when it comes to any type of technology and is crucial in research and design practices.