IN SPE research on the effect of enclosure design on electronic reliability focuses on parameters such as openings, barriers, convention and humidity flow.
Enclosures for electronic devices have the functionality of protecting people and animals from touching the electronics, to protect the electronics from mechanical and environmental impact and finally, the enclosure provides a design/ user functionality interface.
In the IN SPE project, typical devices with enclosures are selected and evaluated in detail and thorough lab testing is conducted. Field performance data and failures are analyzed in detail and the knowledge obtained is used to generate a matrix with the strengths and weaknesses. The work also includes a detailed technology survey and bench marking of available methods for regulating humidity and possibility of integrating them to typical enclosures.
The figure above shows an example of the effect of relative humidity inside an enclosure as a function of variation in external RH and hole size of the enclosure. Credit: H. Conseil et. al., DTU Mechanical Engineering 2015