Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Effects of Porous Layer on Cooling of Electronic Components

Abstract

In this study, heat transfer and temperature distribution characteristics of an electronic component covered with a porous medium were investigated both experimentally and numerically. An experimental setup was designed and constructed to conduct the experiments. For the numerical analysis, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was developed on the OPENFOAM platform. The experimental results were used to validate the mathematical model and the computer program developed. The validated computer program was used to investigate the effects of Reynolds number, porosity, Darcy number, porous layer sizes, and the channel height on the heat transfer rate from the heat dissipating elements (electronic component) to the flow in wider ranges of the parameters. Using the Nusselt number values obtained both experimentally and numerically, a correlation equation was developed, and an artificial neural network architecture was trained for the Nusselt number. Results show that the Nusselt number increases with increasing Reynolds number, porosity, and the ratio of the height of the porous layer to the channel height. It was observed that the width of the porous medium has no noticeable effect on the Nusselt number. The correlation equation developed with four independent parameters predicts the Nusselt number with an average error of 7.59%. The artificial neural network architecture developed prevails as a more accurate tool, with a maximum error of 1%, for the prediction of the Nusselt number in the range of the parameters considered. © © 2026 by ASME.