Passive Heat Transfer in Solid-State Lighting: Relaxing the Boussinesq Approximation Analytically in the Vertical Channel

Analytical relations between the heat flux, temperature rise, thermal boundary layer thickness, and characteristic velocity have been derived for the two-dimensional vertical channel, without use of the Boussinesq approximation. Results have been put into the context of well-established scaling behavior in the literature. In addition, useful implications of the analytical results have been described, including a criterion to determine the suitability of a heat-sink configuration to a particular application.