IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS, PACKAGING, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY-PART A, VOL. 19, NO.

4, DECEMBER 1996

Design Considerations for Air Cooling Electronic

Systems in High Altitude Conditions
Christian L. Belady

Abstract-This paper will provide an overview of the effects of Temperature is held constant. Typically, the thermal en-
altitude on electronics cooling. MIL-STD 210 will be reviewed to gineer will design to the same maximum ambient tem-
demonstrate the relaitionship of altitude to density as well as to perature at all altitudes. It is important to note that the
outside air temperature. Once these relationships are understood
the paper will discuss;the impact of altitude on the performance of properties of air do change with temperature and may
air moving devices using the widely accepted fan laws. A discus- have to be considered in certain circumstances.
sion of both constant speed and altitude compensating fans will The discussion assumes constant fan efficiency. In the
address performance issues such as power dissipation, pressure realm of commercial electronics, where operating alti-
drop, and free delivery of fans under these conditions. Once the tudes range between sea level and lOOOO’, constant fan
fan performance has been characterized, the system impedance
(or pressure drop) must be determined for the appropriate efficiency is a valid assumption.
altitude. The paper will cover how system impedance changes Many of the equations that will be presented are for circu-
under laminar and turbulent flow regimes as altitude varies. The lar ducts but also can be applied to rectangular geometries
impact of altitude om heat transfer will also be discussed along using the hydraulic diameter concept. Hydraulic diarrieter
with the effects operating in the turbulent andl laminar regimes. is defined as Dh 4A/P where A is the cross-sectional
In order to demonstrate the concepts, an example problem will
be worked. area of the duct in square meters and P is the duct
perimeter in meters. Hydraulic diameter (Dh)is simply
Index Temzs- Altitude, temperature, cooling, turbulent, lami- substituted for the diameter (D]in any of the equations
nar, system impedance
for circular ducts. Although this is an approximation, it
is a generally accepted practice in the field of electronics
I. INTRODUCTION cooling.

W HEN considering the effects of altitude on the cooling

design and analysis of commercial electronics, the
thermal analyst has typically either ignored or used only
For constant temperature, the various properties of air (spe-
cific heat, dynamic viscosity, thermal conductivity, and Prandtl
number) are constant as a function of altitude except for
simple, multiplying factors to account for altitude effects. In density which decreases with increasing altitude. Fig. 1 shows
the past, this has been sufficient since the design had ample a plot of air temperature and density as a function of altitude
design margins. In recent years, these margins have diminished from MIL-STD 210 [l]. Note, that these curves show that
and a better understanding of the behavior of the cooling outside ambient temperatures and densities generally decrease
system has been required in order to avoid product failures. with altitude except at very high altitudes. Although aircraft
There are many factors to be considered in designing a cooling electronics can be exposed to the broad range of altitudes and
scheme for a system operating in a broad range of altitude temperatures shown, computer applications typically operate
conditions. These are: in the zero-10000’ (0-3 km) range and in a very narrow
1) fan performance; temperature range. For a given temperature, density at 10000’
2) system impedance; is about 67% of that at sea level (0’). The impact of altitude
3) heat transfer issues. and density will be studied in the following sections.
The following discussion will provide an overview of the
extensive literature addressing these factors but in no way 11. FANPERFORMANCE
should be considered comprehensive. Rather, this review high- The lower densities at higher altitudes have significant
lights some of the design issues that should be considered impact on fan or blower performance. In order to estimate
for system thermal design at altitudes other than sea level. the effects of altitude, a convenient set of relations called the
Therefore, the reader should walk away with an understanding Fan Laws [2] can be used and are as follows:
of some of the trends and concepts on this topic. In order to
simplify this discussion, the following assumptions are made.

Manuscript received March 1996; revised September 4, 1996. This paper

was presented at the 12th SEMITHERM Symposium, Austin, TX, March 5-7,
1996.
The author is with the Convex Division of Hewlett-Packard Company,
Richardson, TX 75080 USA.
Publisher Item Identifer S 1070-9886(96)08924-X.
HPalt HPo* rpm0 3* (z) (3)

1070-9886/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE

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496 BEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS, PACKAGING, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY-PART A, VOL 1 ECEMBER 1996

OEGZ
1

Fig 1 Maximum temperature and density as a function of altitude.

where:
G volumetric flow rate (m3/s);
AP pressure drop (N/m2);
HP fan horsepower (W);
rpm revolutions per minute;
density of air (kg/m3).
Although the Fan Laws assume that the fan has the same
efficiencies at all operating points and altitudes, they are an
excellent first order approximation in the expected behavior of
air moving devices in altitude applications. Note that the fan’s
volumetric flow rate is independent of density while the pres-
sure drop capability and horsepower depend on density. Using
these equations, the effect of altitude on the fan performance Fig 3. Altitude Compensating fan perfo
curve can be studied. There are two classes of fans used in
altitude applications. The most common is a constant speed
fan but in some aircraft applications altitude compensating
10 000’. The dotted line in
fans are used.
10000’ for an altitude compens
1) Constant Speed Fan: Fig. 2 shows a typical fan perfor-
free delivery (AP 0) has increase
ea level (solid curve). Since volumetric flow is
while the maximum pressu
independent of altitude (1) and pressure drop is dependent on
altitude by the density ratio (2), only the pressures (y-axis) are
adjusted. The dotted line in Fig. 2 shows the adjusted fan curve
for 10 000’ and indicates that the fans pressure capability has
degraded to 67%. Note that the fan’s free delivery (A!‘ 0) 111. SYSTEMIMPEDANC
does not change with altitude. In addition, the fan laws (3) The system impedance curve represents t
show that the power required by the fan also decreases to resistances of the frictional losses and o
67%. This becomes important for “push” systems where the
fan heat is dissipated upstream from the system.
2) Altitude Compensating Fan: This type of fan is most
likely seen in aircraft applications rather than typical computer used with the applicable fan cur
applications. It works on the premise that as the air becomes point. The operating point is defined
less dense the fan speeds up (rpm increases) due to the reduced impedance curve and the fan curve.
work load on the fan. These fans are always ac but the effect
of increasing rpm can be duplicated by increasing the voltage electronics enclosures, the following is US
of a dc fan with altitude. Fig. 3 shows a typical altitude
compensating fan performance curve at sea level (solid curve).
lOOOO’, volumetric flow is proportional to rpm (1) and
pressure drop is proportional to the density ratio as well as where:
the square of the rpm ratio (2). If the fan speed increases V velocity of air
by 10% at lOOOO’, both axes must be adjusted. Using (l), f friction factor, a
the volumetric flow rate would increase by 10%. Similarly, L characteristic length (m);

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BELADY. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR AIR COOLINC ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

K loss coefficient, a function of p and V .

In order to simplify the discussion, only €rictional effects
associated with friction factor (f) will be studied here while

where:
Clam constant (kg/m4-s);
constant (mp4).
(fully rough)
Equations (13) and (14) illustrate two very important points.
where: First, pressure drop is a function of only volumetric flow rate
for laminar flow. Second, pressure drop is a function of both
constant;
density (altitude) and volumetric flow rate for turbulent flow.
C f t , constant;
This indicates that it is very important to know the flow regime
Cfls constant;
the system is operating in. Fig. 4 shows both laminar and
Re Reynolds number pVD/p;
turbulent impedance curves. The figure shows that the pressure
dynamic viscosity (kg/m-s);
drop for turbulent flow is linearly proportional to density.
E characteristilc roughness (m).
Therefore, at 10000' for a given flow, the pressure drop is
For most applications, the fully rough assumption (8) is expected to be 67% of that at sea level. For laminar flow, the
valid and will be the only turbulent condition considered here. pressure drop is not a function of density, which implies that
The fully smooth (7) argument would similarly follow but the system impedance is the same €or all altitudes.
would result in a slightly different exponent for G. Since Laminar Flow-Operating nt: Fig. 5 shows the im-
d , E , and are independent of density and can be considered pact of altitude on the system operating point for laminar flow.
constant across a biroad range of altitudes, (6) and (8) can be Note that the operating point for both altitude cases is not
written at the same flow rate. In this case, the volumetric flow rate
Cl Re 2000 does decrease with altitude for laminar flow to about 73%.
(9) The mass flow rate actually decreases to 49%. In addition,
PV
=Ct Re 4000 (10) the operating point has shifted to the knee of the fan curve
for 10 000'. Fan vendors recommend that this area on the fan
where: curve should be avoided due to instabilities associated with
Cl constant; operation here. This type of oversight is quite common in heat
Ct constant. exchanger and coldplate applications where the flow tends to
Combining (5) and (9) results in the laminar equation be more laminar. Generally, where higher altitude variations
can occur (i.e., avionics electronics), laminar flow regimes are
1
AP -pV2 Re< 2000. (11) avoided and turbulent heat sinks are preferred.
2 pv 2) Turbulent Flow-Operating Point: Fig. 6 shows the im-
5
Combining (5) and (10) results in the following: pact of altitude on the system operating point for turbulent
flow. Note that for this model the operating point for both
altitude cases is at the same flow rate since both the sea
level fan and impedance curves (solid lines) are adjusted by
Since volumetric flow rate equals velocity times cross- the density ratio to give the 10000' curves (dashed lines).
sectional area (G V A ) , V can be substituted with G / A Although the volumetric flow rate does not change as a

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49s IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS, PACKAGING, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY-PART A, VOL 19, NO DECEMBER 1996

temperature difference (AT)

If heat capacity is held constan

ature rise is inversely proportio
where the density is 67% of tha
rise will be 50% more for the
flow rate.
The rate of heat transfe

G
Fig 5. System performance-turbulent flow where:
Q power dissipation (W);
h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-C).
Level The heat transfer coefficient, h, is generally expressed in
a dimensionless form called Nusselt number
following:

hD
NU,=-
IL

where
k the conductivity of air (W/m-C).
Since both the conductivity, k , and system geometry, D ,
are independent of density, the heat transfer coefficient is
G proportional to Nusselt
Fig 6 . System performance-lamnar flow. is often referred to as a dimensionless heat
The effect of altitude
on whether the flow is
lent flow, the mass flow rate enclosure. In these two flow reg
dencies are quite different
Again, only fully developed flo
IV. HEATTRANSFER
ISSUES be considered.
1) Laminar Heat Transfer
Both the heat transfer coefficient and the heat capacity of laminar flow, the heat transfer coefficient is constant for a
the air are effected by density or altitude changes. The heat
given geometry and does not change number.
capacity of the air is defined as the energy absorbed as a It is expressed by [4] as follows:
function of the temperature difference between the inlet and
the outlet of the system, as shown in the following:
Nu Chl Re 2000 (laminar flow) (20)
hc h c p (Toutlet Tznlet) (15)
where
where: Chl constant
Q h c heat capacity (W); or can be expressed in terms of h as follows:
pG mass flow (kg/s);
cp specific heat of the air (kJ/kg-C);
T air temperature (e);
which can be rewritten in terms of density and volumetric Ch-lam Re 2000 (laminar flow) (21)
flow rate
where
&hc PGCp(Tout1et Tznlet) Ch-lam constant (W/m2-C).
pGcpAT. (16) This equation shows that, for l m n a r flow, the heat transfer
coefficient does not change regardless of the density andor
Since the power dissipated by the system defines the require flow rate. Thus, the heat trans
heat capacity of the air, (16) can be rewritten to solve for the altitude for laminar flow.

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BELADY: DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR AIR COOLING ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

10,000

G
Fig. 8. System performance-mixed flow.
TABLE I
EXAMPLERESULTS
Duct -7brbulent

Heat Sink Laminar

I G T 7 Sea Level
(2)
10,000 ft
(Constant
Volume)
0.32
0.68
(3)
10,000 ft
(with fan)

0.26
0.62
Gtotal 1.oo 0.88
Fig. 7. Heat sink in duct. 0.21 0.17
mhs
0.62 0.46 0.41
mtotal 1.00 0.67 0.58
2 ) Turbulent Heat Transfer Coeficient: For fully devel- 1.00 0.83 0.67
oped turbulent floiw in a circular duct, the heat transfer
coefficient is a function of Reynolds number and is expressed in Fig. 7. In order to simplify the problem the following
by the Dittus and Bloelter equation in [4] as follows: assumptions are made.
N u 0.023Reo.sPr0.4 R e 10000 1) Clam 2.62 kg/m4-s
2) Cturb 2.62
(turbulent flow) (22) 3) po 1.0 kg/m3 at sea level
where 4) palt 0.67 kg/m3 at 10000'
5) AP, 1 N/m2
Pr Prandtl number for air 0.7
Fig. 8 shows the system impedance and fan performance
or can be expressed in terms of h as follows: curves for this particular problem as denoted by the solid lines
k for the sea level case. Since the geometry used in this example
h - 0 . 0 2 3 R e 0 ~ s P ~ 0 ~ 4 R e 10000 is rectangular, using (13) and (14), and solving for volumetric
D
(turbulent flow). (23) flow using the hydraulic diameter we get the results shown in
column one of Table I.
By substituting the term p V D / p for R e and V with G/A, Next, the volumetric flow at 10000' must be determined.
(23) can be rewritten as Since the pressure drop will be equal through the duct and the
0.8Go.8 heatsink, (13) equals (14) as follows:
h Ch-twbP Re 10000
(turbulent flow) (24) APalt CturbPalt G: ClanG1.

where Substituting we get

Ch-turb constaiit(W s0.8/m2 C kg'.'). (0.67) G: GI.
This equation shows that for turbulent flow, the heat transfer Using the following equation and solving for Gt and then
coefficient is a function of density and flow rate. Thus, the heat substituting into the previous equation
transfer coefficient is dependent on altitude for turbulent flow.
G1+ Gt GT 1.0
V. EXAMPLEPROBLEM or
A simple problem can illustrate some of the dramatic effects G1 1 Gt.
of altitude. Fig. 7 shows a heat sink in a duct. Note that the Substituting in the earlier equation we get
flow through the heat sink is laminar and the flow through
the open duct is turbulent as shown in the resistance network 1 Gt (0.67) G:.

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500 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS, PACKAGING, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY-PART A, VOL 19, NO 4, DECEMBER 1996

TABLE I1 10 OOO’,the temperature rise increases by approximately

SUMMARY 50%.
3) For laminar flow, pressure drop is independent of altitude
and is a linear function of volumetric flow. Thus, the
system impedance curve is t
Laminar Flow 4)
Heat Transfer Coeff h constant
Temperature Delta AT constant ow is laminar.
Turbulent Flow This implies that the
Heat Transfer Coeff

5 ) For turbulent flow, pressure drop ion of altitude

and the square of the volumetric
impedance curve decreases by the density ratio as the
Column two in Table I shows the results at 10000’ after
altitude increases.
solving the quadratic for Gt and then for pressure drop. Note
6 ) For turbulent flow, the heat transfer coefficient is a
that even though the overall volumetric flow was constant, the
function of density and volumetric flow both to the 0.8
actual flow through the heat sink decreased by 18% which
power for circular ducts. This implies that the local air
means that the actual mass flow is 55% (0.82 0.67) of that
temperature rise is inversely propo
at sea level!
volumetric flow both to the 0.8 pow
In reality, the fan will not provide a constant volumetric
flow because the system is not fully turbulent. Fig. 8 shows Finally, the discussion provided here was meant to be tuto-
the actual operating point of the fan at 10000’. Note that the rial in nature with many si ing assumptions to demon-
volumetric flow has actually decreased to 88% of that at sea strate the effects of altitu electronics cooling. These
level. Therefore, after solving the equations as before, the assumptions were:
actual mass flow through the heat sink will be 45% of that 1) constant temperature (i.e., all prop e at a
at sea level which is much less than simply the density ratio temperature);
of 67% as shown in column (3) of Table I. 2) constant fan efficiencies;
3) fully developed flo
Although these assump vide an excellent first order
VI. CONCLUSION approximation of a system’s
Typically, the commercial industry has ignored the effects for improved accuracy.
of altitude on system thermal design since designs were
conservative with enough margin to easily absorb the variation REFERENCES
in altitude. As design margins become more critical, the
[l] Climatic Information to Determine Design and Test Requirements f o r
importance of altitude effects must be considered. The purpose Military Systems and Equipment, MIL-STD- States Gov-
of this paper was not to validate various correlations but rather emment, Jan 9, 1987
to provide insight into the issues that must be considered for [Z]A D Krans and A Bar-Cohe Control of
Electronic Equipment New Yo
cooling systems exposed to a range of altitude conditions, [3] R. W. Fox and A T McDonald, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, 2nd
For this reason, transitional flow was not studied due to the ed. New York Wiley, 1978
[4] J. P. Holman, Heat Transfer, 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981
complexity and uncertainty of this flow regime. In addition,
developing flows and fan efficiencies were not considered for
simplicity. A summary of the pertinent relations are shown in
Christian Belady receiv
onships demonstrate the behavior of several
parameters which must be considered for system cooling
designs from which several conclusions can be drawn.
international business from the University of Texas,
1) Altitude has significant effect on fan performance. The Dallas in 1990
pressure drop that a constant speed fan can provide He is a Senior Thermal Analyst for the Convex
decreases by the density ratio as the altitude increases. Division of Hewlett-Packard in Richardson, TX, and
At 10000’ the density is 67% of that at sea level which
implies the pressure drop will be 67%. On the other hand, position at HP, he worl E
the fan will dissipate 33% (1-0.67) less power at 10 000’. 1986-1995, where he was responslble fort
optic systems From 1983-1986, he worke
2) If the volumetric flow is held constant, the temperature Division where he was
rise between the inlet and the outlet of the system Engineer in the state of Texas. He h
increases by the density ratio as altitude increases. Thus, on the topic of thermal design with an
Mr. Belady is a member of IEPS an
the temperature rise of the air increases by the reciprocal Board of Directors of
of the density ratio (U0.67 1.49). In other words, at Austin, TX

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