Author(s)

Yasushi Koito, Toshio Tomimura

Division of Energy Science, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.

By placing a sample between a heated and a cooled rod, a thermal conductivity of the sample can be evaluated easily with the assumption of a one-dimensional heat flow. However, a three-dimensional constriction/spreading heat flow may occur inside the rods when the sample is a composite having different thermal conductivities. In order to investigate the thermal resistance due to the constriction/spreading heat flow, the three-dimensional numerical analyses were conducted on the heat transfer characteristics of the rods. In the present analyses, a polymer-based composite board having thermal vias was sandwiched between the rods. From the numerical results, it was confirmed that the constriction/spreading resistance of the rods was strongly affected by the thermal conductivity of the rods as well as the number and size of the thermal vias. A simple equation was also proposed to evaluate the constriction/spreading resistance of the rods. Fairly good agreements were obtained between the numerical results and the calculated ones by the simple equation. Moreover, the discussion was also made on an effective thermal conductivity of the composite board evaluated with the heated and the cooled rod.

Heat Transfer Enhancement, Thermal Via, Constriction/Spreading Resistance, Steady-State Method, Effective Thermal Conductivity

Koito, Y. and Tomimura, T. (2017) Numerical Study on Heat Transfer Characteristics of Heated/Cooled Rods Having a Composite Board in between: Effect of Thermal Vias. Journal of Electronics Cooling and Thermal Control, 7, 91-102. doi: 10.4236/jectc.2017.74008.