Experimental and numerical investigation of 3D gas flow temperature field in infrared heating reflow oven with circulating fan

This study presents the experimental and numerical analysis of the thermal process for laboratory scale desktop lead-free reflow oven and discusses a 3D CFD model of radiation heating with forced-air convection from circulating stainless steel fan. The experiments were carried out to determine the temperature boundary condition of infrared heating element. In addition, the RPM of the rotating fan was measured using HT50 tachometers. To validate the spatial temperature of the oven, a set of industrial standard thermocouples was employed in various positions. The device was accessed throughout all stages of temperature reflow profile. The profile setting of the oven is in accordance to standard JSTD-020D. The desktop reflow oven was then numerically simulated using the computational model and the advanced user-defined functions (UDFs) were developed to model the thermal profile. The study reveals the temperature distribution of the desktop reflow oven is dependent on the air circulation in the oven at various positions. The temperature contour and air circulation in the oven chamber were demonstrated in the numerical simulation. The experimental and simulation results are useful for further improvement of temperature uniformity within the oven chamber for a convective IR heating reflow oven. The temperature results show a satisfactory agreement with both experiment and simulation.