Thermodynamics Mini Project

Date: 12 Apr 2014

A computer is kept on all the time to monitor financial stock exchanges. The core functions of
the computer are mainly carried out by its processor chip. The shape of the processor is like a
flat slab with dimensions of 10mm by 5mm by 9nm, as shown in Fig. 1 below.
Some of the electrical energy used by the processor is lost as heat, leading to heat generation
within the processor. The rate at which heat is generated within the processor chip of the
computer is 0.04W. Hence, there is a fan in the computer which blows air past the processor
chip to cool it down.
a) One day, the fan of the computer malfunctioned and stopped working. How long will it
take for the computer to overheat and spoil? Assume that the computer will fail once the
processor chip reaches a temperature of 100C.
b) What power rating should the replacement fan be if we want to keep the maximum
temperature of the processor chip at 80C?
Assumptions:
1. Temperature of air is constant at 28C.
2. The processor chip is made of pure silicon.
3. Only top side of the processor chip is exposed to air, as illustrated in Fig. 1.
4. A circular fan is used, and the diameter of the fan is 3cm.
5. Density of air is constant.
10mm

5mm
Figure 1. Structure of the computer processor

a) The thermal conductivity, k, of Si is 130 W/m.K while its thermal diffusivity, , is 8105 2
m /s.
The convective heat-transfer coefficient of air can be taken to be 10 W/m2.K
Volume of the processor = (1010-3) (510-3) (910-9) = 4.510-13 m3
Area of the exposed surface = (1010-3) (510-3) = 510-5 m2
13
hV (10)( 4.5 10 )
B i=
=
=6.921010 0.1
5
kA (130)(5 10 )
Since the Bi value is less than 0.1, we can treat this as a lumped parameter case.
Doing some energy balance, we get
dT
q hA ( T T ) = C p V
dt
Let be

T T

d
q
hA
B

= A
dT C p V C p V

where

A=

q
Cp V

and

hA

B=
C p V

1
d= dt
A

B
0
0

A=

t=

1
A
ln
B
A

q
q
0.04
=
=
=54701
Cp V k
130
13
V
(4.5 10 )
5

8 10
5

10(5 10 )
hA
hA

B=
=
=
=683.76
C p V k
130
13
V
(4.5 10 )

8 105
t=

54701 ( 683.76 )( 10028 )

1
ln
=3.37 103 s
683.76
54701

b) To make sure CPU does not overheat, a vertically orientated fan was considered for
cooling the CPU. Therefore, the heat balance has to be reached:
q h A T =0 , where T =T sT =80 28 =52 .
This means required h is 15.4 W/m2.K.
Heat transfer coefficient h is related to Nusselt number:
Reynolds number and Prandtl number:

327 K

1.0805 kg/m3

The required uniform velocity

For L = 10mm,

, which depends on
L =

UL
.

T s +T 80 + 28
=
=54 .
2
2

1.97x10-5
Pa.s

hL
k

Nu L =0.664 1/L 2 Pr 1/ 3 , where

Air properties were found at film temperature: T f =

Tf

Nu L =

1.83x10-5
m2/s

Pr

0.7016

2.831x102
W/m.K

was found for both orientations of CPU.

= 0.005536 m/s. And for L=5mm,

= 0.007829 m/s. Thus, L =

10mm was used.

To find the required air pressure, drag on the flat plate was calculated:
w=0.664 LU 3 ,
and its relationship to the pressure difference required:

KD= p A flow= p wH

, where

H is approximate thickness of velocity field and was assumed to be similar to boundary layer
thickness, which was around 3cm. K is a constant that represents the other components that
disturb the flow and increase pressure drop, it was assumed to be 500.
Assuming the efficiency is a quite low 1%, the power required was found

2
D 2 U 0.664
Q p D U
3
P=
=
p=
LU =4 W

4
4
H

Figure 2. Raspberry pi micro fan (D=15mm). It uses P=3.3V*0.06A=0.2W and it is 50,000times more
powerful than the considered design in part (b)

Limitations to our calculations are due to our assumptions above as well as assuming that
heat loss is only due to convection. In reality, a microprocessor is made up of various other
materials and does not really have a solid slab structure, and heat can be lost in any direction
and not restricted to convection.