30 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON AERONAUTICAL AND NAVIGATIONAL ELECTRONICS March

Cold Plate Design for Airborne

Electronic Equipment
M. MARKt

Summary-A solution to the problem of cooling certain types of AT= temperature difference between cold plate
high heat-dissipating airborne electronic equipment is the modifica- surface and coolant, 'F.
tion of the equipment chassis to incorporate a simple plate-fin heat t=fin thickness, feet.
exchanger, sometimes called a "cold plate." In this paper equations
for cold plates are developed and the effect of variations in fin con- W=coolant rate of flow, lb/min.
figuration on performance are discussed. Theoretical and experi- w=coolant rate of flow per passage, lb/min.
mental results based on tubes mounted on a cold plate are found to A = (T.-T1) /Q, hr 'F/BTU.
compare very favorably. The application of the cold-plate technique u= viscosity of coolant, lb/ft hr.
is illustrated for power transistors. This method of cooling is shown p1= coolant density at inlet to cold plate, pcf.
to be useful and efficient.
P2 = coolant density at exit from cold plate, pcf.
LIST OF SYMBOLS pm =average coolant density in cold plate, pcf.
a' = flow-area contraction ratio, dimensionless.
A =total free-flow area in cold plate, square
feet. I NTRODUCTION
B =width of cold plate, feet. T -I HE electronics industry is well aware of the strong
b =width of passage, feet.
C = K( +Ke+Kh, dimensionless. trend toward miniaturization in airborne elec-
C,=specific heat of coolant at constant pres- tronic equipment together with the increasing
sure, BTU/lb OF. severity in thermal environment encountered. Both of
De,=equivalent diameter, feet. these, however, have proceeded at a greater rate than
E=empirical factor, dimensionless. the increase in allowable temperature obtained by the
f= friction factor, dimensionless. component manufacturer. The result has been that con-
G=coolant mass velocity, lb/min square feet. siderable emphasis is placed on proper thermal design
g=acceleration due to gravity, ft/hr2. in airborne electronic equipment, which in turn, has
H=fin height, feet. required more efficient use of the heat sink available
h = heat-transfer coefficient, BTU/hr square aboard an aircraft.1
feet 'F. For airborne equipment air has been a commonly
I= total cold plate height, feet. available coolant. This paper is concerned with a meth-
od of efficiently utilizing this medium for cooling elec-
KC, K0, Kh=loss coefficients, dimensionless. tronic equipment through forced convection; however,
k = thermal conductivity of coolant, BTU/hr
feet 'F. it should be kept in mind that the technique discussed
L =length of cold plate, feet. can be employed with fluids other than air, the same
N=number of flow passages in cold plate, principles applying.
dimensionless. In forced convection, properly designed fins or ex-
Nu = Nusselt number = hDe/k, dimensionless. tended surface area can reduce the amount of air re-
Pr = Prandlt number =cp,u/k, dimensioinless. quired for cooling.2 A very useful technique for finning
components in effect, and one which has proved to be an
AP=total pressure drop, inches of water. excelleint solution to the problem of cooling high heat-
Q=rate of heat transfer to coolant, BTU/hr. electronic equipment, is the cold plate. The
dissipating
R=thermal resistance between transistor and cold plate conlsists essentially of a modified equipment
cold plate, hr 'F/BTU.
chassis iincorporating a simple plate-fin heat ex-
Re Reynolds number = 6OGDe/,I dimension- changer.3'4 The variable dimensions of a typical cold
=
less.
plate are shown schematically in Fig. 1. Electronic
S total heat-transfer area of passages, square components are mounted through good heat-conducting
=
feet.
paths to both top and bottom plates, the coolant flowing
T,=transistor surface temperature, OF.
T,=maximum cold plate temperature, OF. 1 M. Mark, "General design aspects for cooling electronic equip-
T, = coolant temperature, inlet to cold plate, 'F. ment," Aeronaut. Electronics Digest, pp. 294-296; May, 1955.
2 M. Mark, "Air coolinig a finned magnetron," Tele-Tech., vol. 15,
T,=coolant temperature, exit from cold plate, pp. 100-101, 174-178; June, 1956.
OF. 3 M. Mark and M. Stephenson, "The Air-Cooled Electronic
Chassis," Amer. Soc. Mech. Eng., Paper No. 55-A-55.
4 M. Mark and M. Stephenson, "Design and performance of air-
*
Manuscript received by the PGANE, October 22, 1957. cooled chassis for electronic equipment," IRE TRANS. ON COM-
t Consulting Engineer, Cambridge, Mass. PONENT PARTS, vol. 3, pp. 38-44; Septem-iber, 1956.

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1958 Mark: Cold Plate Design for Airborne Electronic Equipment 31
6ODeG
Re =() (5)
where,u is the viscosity of the coolant, and G is the mass
velocity. G is defined by
w
G = -Y
a (6)
w being the coolant rate of flow for one passage. For
the cold plate, with uniformly distributed flow,
w Nw W
a Na A (7)
Fig. 1 Cold plate dimensions.
where W is the total coolant rate of flow. Substituting
between the plates being physically separated from the (1), (4), (6), and (7) into (5),
components.
The cold plate as a cooling system integrates well Re = -2W(60) (8)
with such special packaging requirements as hermetic I1N(H + b)
sealing, pressurization, structural strength, and con- A heat transfer coefficient h betweeni a surface and
tamination prevention where impurities exist in the a fluid, applicable to a cold plate, can be defined by
coolant. In addition, temperature, pressure-drop, and
mass-flow data can be estimated with satisfactory dQ hdSAT (9)
accuracy in advance of detailed electronic information. where dQ is an infinitesmal amount of heat per unit
COLD PLATE GEOMETRY time being transferred from a surface of area dS, and
Variables in the geometry of the cold plate are the AT is the temperature difference between the surface
number of flow passages N, the passage width b, the fin dS and the coolant bounded by dS. Heat-transfer cor-
thickness t, the fin height H, the plate length L, the relations for an average h applicable to a rectangular
plate width B, and the plate height I. Fig. 1 shows the duct are known in terms of the Nusselt number Nu, the
flow passages for the coolant as rectangular ducts but Reynolds number Re, and the Prandtl number Pr. For
variations, such as circular cross sections or serrated turbulent flow5 the correlation can be expressed as,
fins, are also possible. Only smooth rectangular passages Nu = 0.019(Re)° 5(Pr)0 33. (10)
are considered here, since this configuration is the one
most commonly used for cold plate applications. For laminar flow6 the round-tube rather than the flat-
The total flow area A normal to the direction of flow, plate correlation is used, to be conservative:
(i.e., total free-flow area) is given by P
Nu = 3.66 + 0.05 (Re) (Pr) -( (1 1)
A = NbH. (1) 7rL
The total heat transfer surface area S is (assuming 100 In (11),
per cent fin efficiency) hDe
S = 2NL(H + b). (2) Nu =
(12)
k
The equivalent diameter De for a single passage is de-
fined by Pr =-- (13)
k
4a
DeG= (3) and k is the thermal conductivity of the coolant, cp its
p specific heat.
where a is the free-flow area for one passage (bH), and For cold plate design, the heat transfer conditions
P is the wetted perimeter of the passage (2H+2b). In can usually be approximated by a uniform heat input
terms of Fig. 1 this becomes surface. Heat dissipating electronic components are
placed over the entire mounting area; moreover, the
4bH 2bH heat is spread out by the nonfinned top and bottom
De -= * (4)
2(H + b) H + b
5 W. M. Kays and A. L. London, "Convective heat transfer and
HEAT TRANSFER flow-friction behavior of small cylindrical tubes cirdular and
rectangular cross section," Trans. ASME, vol. 74, pp. 1179-1189;
A dimensionless parameter important in heat transfer October, 1952.
6 R. H. Norris and D. D. Streid, "Laminar-flow heat transfer
and fluid mechanics is the Reynolds number, which can coefficients for ducts," Trans. ASME, vol. 62, pp. 525-533; August,
be written 1940.

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32 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON AERONAUTICAL AND NAVIGATIONAL ELECTRONICS Maich

thicknesses (I-H)/2 (see Fig. 1), of the high thermal

conductivity metal, generally aluminum or magnesium,

.~~~I
LL)
that forms the cold plate. The h used in (9) can be con- cr
Z)
T2
sidered an average value applicable over the entire
a:
surface. w
CL Ti
For the conditions described, zXT does not vary along m
LLJ
the passage. Consequently, the coolant temperature
varies linearly with length along the passage and lies
parallel to the cold plate temperature curve. This has tu
LENGTH ALONG PASSAGE IN COLD PLATE
L
been confirmed by experiment as a good first approxima-
tion, especially in the region of the cold plate unaffected Fig. 2 Cold plate teinperature variation.
bv lateral conduction to the entrance and exit coolant
headers. Fig. 2 shows a typical cold plate temperature where E is an empirical factor introduced to take ac-
variation. count of variations from the basic assumptions, such as
If T, is the maximum cold plate temperature and nonuniform heat distribution and nonlinearity of plate
T2 is the exit coolant temperature (Fig. 2), (9) can be or coolant temperature, and to provide a factor of
written in integrated form as engineering safety.
Q = hS(TC - T2) (14) PRESSURE DROP
where Q is the total rate of heat transfer. An energy The expression for the pressure drop associated with
equation is also applicable the coolant flow through the cold plate is3
692GI P
Q = 6OWc,(T2- T1). (15)
Ap =--
2gpi
+1 j(Kc -a2)
+2
P2
(--1)
Combining (14) anid (15), T, can be eliminated
+DfDe
L
- -
pi (1
)-P1T+K}
Ke) -+ K
- (21)
- (16)
T, , =

Q60 W,p +hS

( pm P2

where K, and Ke are the entrance anid exit loss coeffi-

or cients, o- is the flow-area contraction ratio, p is the
1 I T'-T
+ = (17) coolant density, and Kh is an additional loss associated
60Wcp hS Q with the cold plate headers. The subscripts 1 and 2
refer to the entrance and exit condition, respectively,
The heat dissipated Q is fixed by the dissipation of the subscript m referring to the average condition be-
the electronic components mounted on the cold plate, tween entrance and exit. The factor 692 accounts for
plus or minus any stray heat gain or loss. T, is given by the units employed.
the allowable temperature of the most temperature- The friction factorf in (21) is similar to h in that its
critical component near the exit end of the package and value depends on the value of the Reynolds number.
the temperature drop through the particular conductive For turbulent flow7
path. (The allowable component temperature minus the
temperature drop through the conductive path equals 0.316
(22)
the plate temperature T,.) T1 is generally determined (Re) 0.25
by the temperature of the available coolant. These
quantities can be used to define a new parameter A For laminar flow5
whose reciprocal represents the amount of cooling re- 64 De
quired and whose value for any particular electronic f = - + 0.608 (23)
Re L
package is constant:
T - T For the case where the density change between en-
A=- (18) trance and exit of the cold plate is negligible, (21) can
Q be rewritten
Substituting (18) (17)
in 692G2 K L
1 1 2gp
K
De
+ Ke + Kh) . (24)
+ = A. (19)
60Wc, hS The constants in (24) can be grouped together, defining
Eq. (19) represents the basic cooling equation for a a new coinstant C
cold plate. In actual design (19) is written C = Kc + Ke ± Kh. (25)
1 1
0Wc+ hS/IE
uS =
(0 I M. Jakob, "Heat Transfer," John WTiley and Sons, Inc., New
60Wc, (20) York, N. Y., vol. 1; 1949.

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1958 Mark: Cold Plate Design for Airborne Electronic Equipment 33
1000

I-

Fig. 5-Cold plate with subminiature tubes.

10

Fig. 3-Maximum cold plate temperature minus inlet air tem-

perature vs air-flow rate.

10.-

1-

t
'i _ Fig. 6-Cold plate test assembly.
I

turns, expansions, and contractions required of the flow

in the headers. The total of these C may be of the order
of magnitude of five; however, ten is a more conserva-
tive estimate recommended in the early design stages
when header configurations are not definite.
PERFORMANCE WITH VACUUM TUBES
;.
To enable comparison of the theory with experi-
mental results, subminiature tubes were attached to a
cold plate by means of tube clamps. Two typical graphs
are given in Figs. 3 and 4, one showing T. -T vs W
the other showing Ap vs W, and Figs. 5 and 6 show
.01I
I ,. *., I I., I ,I . O1
photographs of the test setup. The experimental tem-
W, LO/ MIN perature rise curve is for a zero external heat loss con-
Fig. 4-Pressure drop vs air-flow rate. dition, since the heat dissipation given is that deter-
mined from the temperature rise of the air (about 90
per cent of the electrical heat dissipation). The experi-
Substituting C into (24) mental and theoretical curves, therefore, should be di-
692G2 / L rectly comparable. The experimental pressure-drop
AP =
_I _+ (26
curve is for friction drop only, entrance and exit losses
2gp De (26)
having been subtracted, while the theoretical curve is
Values of Kc and K, can be estimated from data on for C=O; the experimental and theoretical curves
abrupt contractions and expansions. A value for therefore again should be directly comparable. The
Kh can be approximated based on the amount of free- agreement on both graphs is seen to be very satisfactory.
flow area in the headers and the number of right-angle The question of whether tube cooling with cold plates

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34 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON AERONAUTICAL AND NAVIGATIONAL ELECTRONICS March

is superior to other techniques8 has been discussed in

the literature.9 Results indicate that in some instances
cold plates are preferred.9 However, no general state-
ment covering all applications for tubes is properly | u~~~TRANSISTOR CASE

made, certain methods being preferable to others in ; COPPER PLATE

specific cases. COLD PLATE

PERFORMANCE WITH POWER TRANSISTORS =

The power transistor10 is a good example of a com-
ponent to which cold plate cooling can be efficiently
STUD

applied. A power transistor consists generally of a shell Fig. 7-Transistor cold plate. on

or case, at one end of which is a plate of copper, some-

times with a threaded stud (see Fig. 7). The plate is a
critical external part of the transistor, and manufac-
turers give allowable plate temperatures as a function
of power output. The problem then is to cool this plate
as efficiently as possible.
Applying the cold plate technique to the power tran-
sistor results essentially in finning the plate of the Fig. 8-Transistor on cold plate.
transistor. The stud, where one exists, extends down
into the cold plate, drawing the transistor tight against cold plates were conducted at various power levels, and
the cold plate surface; in the absence of a stud, screws transistor case temperatures were measured as a func-
may serve the same purpose (Fig. 8). tion of flow rate in cubic feet per minute (at 14.7 psi,
The surface temperature T, of the transistor is fixed 70°F). The three power transistors were the H-7 and the
by the particular electrical application and the heat H-10 (Minneapolis Honeywell), and the 2N242 (Syl-
dissipated Q. The inlet air temperature T1 is given by vania). Each was fastened by studs or screws which
whatever is available either in the aircraft or other drew the transistor case tight against the cold plate. No
source. For the transistor mounted on the cold plate mica insulating washers were used; instead the whole
(Figs. 7 and 8) the following equation can be written cold plate was electrically insulated with a gasket. This
eliminated temperature drop across the mica washer
T,-T1 = (T8- T,) + (T,- T,) (27) that is normally between the transistor and the mounit-
where T, is the cold plate temperature adjacent to the ing surface. The cold plates were two by two inches
transistor. But aluminum, with 0.25 by 0.050-inch fins, and ten fins
per inch. Test results of the cold plate cooled transistor
T,- Tc= QR (28) are given in Fig. 9. The transistor and cold plate were
xvhere R represents the thermal resistance between tran- completely insulated so that no radiation or con-
sistor and cold plate. Substituting (16) and (28) into vection could take place from the transistor case.
(27), taking E as one, The only heat path then was through the cold plate
into the air, except for some loss through the insulation.
Ts-T1 = Q jR+ -) (29) The (T,-T1) values plotted in Fig. 9 were corrected
for any heat loss through the insulation, thus making the
Rewriting (29) results conservative.
The results of the tests show that to maintain T,=
85°C for the H-7, for example, with five watts dissipa-
--= R +-+ * (30) tion and T1=60'C, would require about 2 cubic feet
Q hS 60Wcp
per minute (at 14.7 psi and 70°F) with the cold plate
The first term R, on the right-hand side of (30), de- described. This amouint of air could be further reduced
pends on the contact resistance between transistor and by increasing the size of the cold plate or the number of
cold plate; the second and third terms depend on the fins per inch. But the amount to be gained by this is
airflow rate W. limited by the value of (1/60 Wcp+R) in (30). Increas-
Tests on three different power transistors mounted on ing the area of the plate or increasing the number of
8 M. Mark, "A note on forced convection tube cooling with
fins affects only the lhS term.
chimneys, Proc. Natl. Con]. eronaut. Electronics, pp.
" A 145-149; May, A comparison of this cold plate technique with direct
1956.
9 M. Mark and M. Stephenson, "Direct and indirect forced air
contact cooling for an H-7 appears in Fig. 10. Here the
cooling techniques for electronic equipment," Proc. Natl. Conf. Aero- H-7 was placed in a rectangular duct as shown and air
naut. Electronics, pp. 150-153; May, 1956.
"I M. Mark "Forced air cooling for power transistors," Proc. NatI.
was forced over it. As shown by Fig. 10, cold plate is the
Conf. Aeronaut. Electronics, pp. 389-391; May, 1957. more efficient cooling technique in this application.

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1958 Mark: Cold Plate Design for Airborne Electronic Equipment 35

0 50 100 ISO 200 250O 300 350O 400o

N, NUMBER OF FLOW PASSAGES

Fig. 11 Airflow vs number of flow passages.

T -.0167 FT

A__.030 HR-{F/BTU

-_TURBULENT FLOW

.2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 1.0 1.5 2 2.5 3 4 5 6 7

AIR FLOW CFM, p .075 LB/CU. FT

5C. _

Fig. 9 Transistor, cold plate cooled, performance curves.

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

N, NUMBER OF FLOW PASSAGES
231
Fig. 12 Flow power vs number of flow passages.
2" LONG
---I ALUMINUM DUCT f

312 It 2LUMIlN UM CO LD P LAT E

A

7
T

4
For a sample study,3 B was taken as 1 foot, L as 12 feet,
and A as 0.030, E as 1.0, C as 10. Results of the com-
CFMX AP I IN.H.0)(FOR DASHED LINES)
putations of the sample study3 were presented in the
.01 .02 .os o.
form of curves of W, Ap, and WVzp vs N, t, and II. Typi-
cal curves that resulted from this references are shown in
-1 Figs. 11 and 12. Examination of the curves in this study
establishes certain conclusions with respect to N, t, and
H and the flow power required to do the cooling, and
makes possible the design of the most efficient cold plate
for any particular application. One interesting point
I2 3 4
I apparent from this work is that in some cases, a laminar-
CFM(p =.075 LB/CU FT)
flow plate is superior to a turbulent-flow plate in re-
Fig. 10 Transistor, duct cooled, performance curves. quiring a lower W or WAp to do the cooling.
The cold plate technique appears to be a very satis-
factory scheme for cooling airborne electronic equip-
PERFORMANCE IN GENERAL ment it is, in effect, a technique for finning electronic
The geometrical quantities B, L, and I of Fig. 1 are components. Performance data can be analytically pre-
generally set by electronic packaging considerations, dicted with good accuracy. From a packaging point of
such as available space, required component area, and view the technique adapts itself to any of a number of
desired structural strength. N, b, t, and H, however, over-all system schemes.2'3 In addition, it offers a posi-
may be given any values realistic from a fabrication tive method for insuring that the component tempera-
point of view, and it is important to know how varia- ture remains at a proper level consistent with the re-
tion of each of these parameters affects the performance quired performance and reliability.
of the system.
Referring to Fig. 1, N, t, and H can be chosen as the ACKNOWLEDGMENT
independent variables, since B is given and N, t, b, B This paper is based on heat transfer work carried out
are related by at the Raytheon Manufacturing Co., Wayland, Mass.,
and Laboratory for Electronics, Inc., Boston, Mass., and
(1 + N)t + (N)b = B. contained largely in references 4 and 10.

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