The packaging of electrical equipment into smaller, tighter containers has created heat concentration problems which threaten the reliability of electrical equipment. Maintaining long life in the field is generally as important to a reputable manufacturer as the initial design and function of the product. Since life expectancy of an electrical component is highly dependent on its operation temperature, it becomes desirable to maintain a cool environment for those components. One way to accomplish this in a high density packaging arrangement is with the use of finned cold plates. With heat concentration problems arising from packaging of electrical components, analysis of cold plates for size and performance is a necessity for product design. Our COLDPLATE Analysis Routine follows Kays and London's analysis procedure but takes it a step further. COLDPLATE can analyze straight fin stock as well as pin fin and lanced offset fin cold plates thus allowing the user more freedom.

COLDPLATE analyzes cold plates the user has divided into sections and determines actual temperatures for those specific sections rather than one temperature for the whole plate. Through this technique, the routine provides results for discrete locations. This is a one dimensional routine when used on the IBM Personnel Computer thus the plate should be divided along the length perpendicular to the fluid. For two dimensional mode analysis, COLDPLATE is available for lease on mainframes.

• COLDPLATE gives specific fluid and plate temperatures for discrete locations.
• COLDPLATE determines Heat Transfer Coef., Pressure Drop, Plate Temperature, Air Temperature, Dynamic Head, and Fin Efficiency.
• COLDPLATE determines Colburn Number and Friction Factor based on straight fin stock.
• COLDPLATE allows the user to input his own Colburn Number and Friction Factor to facilitate the analysis of Pin and Lanced Offset Fins.
• COLDPLATE includes correction factors to compensate for manufacturing imperfections, low Reynolds numbers, and limiting Nusselt numbers.

This routine is very self explanatory and user friendly. A user's manual is not needed since the user is led through the routine by questions and statements.