In-plane effective thermal conductivity of a single layered metallic wire-mesh screen

The primary objective of this study is to estimate the in-plane thermal conductivity of a single layered metallic wire-mesh screen using a finite element model. The wire diameter of this screen is on the order of tens of microns. A small portion of this wire-mesh screen is analyzed and the estimated numerical in-plane thermal conductivity is compared with analytical correlations from the literature. The future scope of this work is in the evaporator package model of a novel Two-Phase Heat Transfer Device (TPHTD) which is currently being employed in thermal management of light emitting diodes (LEDs). Three approximate screen geometries are investigated in this study and their effective thermal conductivities are computed using a finite element model. Based on the results of this current investigation, it is strongly recommended to conduct experimental measurements for estimating the thermal conductivity of the actual screen geometry.