I'm an Electrical Engineer, but they made me take Thermo "to broaden my knowledge" whether I wanted to or not, so I'm semi-dangerous in this arena. They made the ME's take a circuits class too. Poor bastards...
All good. I guess when I see "convection" I automatically jump to a heat sink in a neutral environment from an air movement standpoint where there is only casual air movement, no fans. This kind of application is the most challenging to design for and still deliver a product that is small enough but puts out enough power with a good service life. In the same way, it's hard on our car's cooling system when they don't have a 60 mph headwind pushing air through the radiator. Surface area of the tubes and fins becomes very important.
