Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid

Mechanics

ISSN: 1994-2060 (Print) 1997-003X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tcfm20

Passive Enhancement of Heat Dissipation of

Desktop Computer Chassis

S. Kong Wang, Juin Haw Hu & Chun-Hsien Kuo

To cite this article: S. Kong Wang, Juin Haw Hu & Chun-Hsien Kuo (2010) Passive Enhancement
of Heat Dissipation of Desktop Computer Chassis, Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid
Mechanics, 4:1, 139-149, DOI: 10.1080/19942060.2010.11015305

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/19942060.2010.11015305

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 Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 139–149 (2010)

PASSIVE ENHANCEMENT OF HEAT DISSIPATION

OF DESKTOP COMPUTER CHASSIS
S. Kong Wang* +, Juin Haw Hu* and Chun-Hsien Kuo**

* Department of Mechanical & Automation Engineering, I – Shou University,

Kaohsiung 84001, Taiwan, China
+ E-Mail: skwang@isu.edu.tw (Corresponding Author)

** Department of Mold and Die Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences,
Kaohsiung 80701, Taiwan, China

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to find optimal configurations for chassis heat dissipation in a passive
fashion, i.e., to reach an optimal configuration by determining the location and orientation of an additional fan (if
any), aided by flow-inducing openings on the chassis cover, without making further hardware changes on the current
design. The results were compared with the temperature measurements of each element, and the agreement was
favorable. The parameters under consideration are the locations and orientations of the additional fan, and flow
conditions of the openings on the chassis cover, i.e., with or without an opening, and the direction of the flow
(blowing in or sucking out). Temperature distributions and flow fields around various heating elements were
evaluated numerically. It is concluded that an overall optimal chassis configuration in which all the heating elements
have a favorable heat dissipation behavior may not exist. However, an optimal configuration in terms of heat
dissipation does exist if only one specific element is under consideration. Also, the occurrence of vortices which
results in poor heat dissipation was identified, and the method for the elimination of these vortices was suggested.
Keywords: passive heat dissipation, PC chassis heat dissipation, heating element, fan configurations, openings on
PC cover, vortices

1. INTRODUCTION Kim et al. (2003) by using heat pipes, Dirker, Van

As the manufacturing techniques of the semi-
conductor industries continue to improve, the
requirements for a better performance and a
reduced volume of chips in general result in an
increase of working power of CPUs. Bar-Cohen,
Kraus and Davidson (1983) showed that
reliability and stability of a chip would decrease
by 10% if the temperature of the chip increases by
2 C. Yeh (1995) reported that the occurrence of
spoilage of a chip could reach 50% if the chip is
operated above an abnormally high temperature.
A major technique of CPU cooling utilizes a
combination of a fan and a heat sink. However,
the current cooling methods are still not
satisfactory to meet the trend of higher
performance, smaller volume and lighter weight
of the computers for future applications.
Therefore, the research and development of chip
cooling are still attracting many investigators.
While there have been numerous studies on chip
cooling in the last decade or so; however,
researches on heat dissipation in a desktop
computer chassis are scarce and most of them are
focused on utilization of hardware or active
mechanisms to enhance heat dissipation (e.g.,
Wyk and Meyer (2006) by using embedded solids,
and Amon (1992) by destabilizing forced
convection of the fan flow). Yu and Webb (2001)
used the software ANSYS to simulate a complete
desktop computer chassis in which some
important components related to heat generation
and dissipation such as, memory, chips, AGP,
PCI, and floppy drives were included and
analyzed. They concluded that the cooling for
AGP and PCI cards can be improved with the
installation of PCI side vane and baffle. With an
appropriate use of ducting, they claimed that
further cooling can be achieved. Choi, Kim and
Kim (2004) discussed the effects of turbulent
models on convective heat transfer in a
rectangular enclosure (in an attempt to model a
computer chassis) and evaluated the effects of the
aspect ratio of the enclosed case. Ozturk and Tari
(2007) drew a CFD road map for forced cooling
conjugate heat transfer analyses in a computer
chassis. They concluded that the main source of
error in CFD analyses arise from inappropriate
numerical models including turbulence model,
radiation modeling and discretization schemes.
The last two papers did study heat transfer on the
level of a computer chassis. However, they still

Received: 4 Aug. 2009; Revised: 3 Oct. 2009; Accepted: 29 Oct. 2009

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 Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics Vol. 4, No. 1 (2010)

lack a systematic approach in the enhancement of
heat dissipation, especially in a passive fashion.
The heat generated from the main heating
elements in a PC chassis is dissipated via heat
convection of the flows induced by various fans.
The types and locations of the fans of current
design vary from model to model, and PC
manufacturers of nowadays do not seem to have a
clear guideline of chassis design in terms of
enhancement of heat dissipation. A similar study
carried out by Yu, Tan and Fok (2009)
determined the optimal location and orientation of
an additional fan of an automatic teller machine.
They showed that by installing an exhaust fan, re-
orientating the ATM power supply unit, and
removing problematic areas where flow re-
circulation occurred, a better thermal performance
in terms of heat dissipation could be achieved.
The more advanced chassis design in general uses
an additional fan other than the conventional fan
behind the power supply. Therefore, the purpose
of the current study is to find optimal
configurations (if any) for heat dissipation in a
rather passive fashion, i.e., to reach an optimal
configuration by determining the location and
orientation of an additional fan, aided by possible
openings on the chassis cover, without further
changing the internal hardware of the current
design. The software used in this study is the
commercially available FLUENT. Active
schemes of the enhancement of heat dissipation at
chip level are excluded in this study.
2. CFD SIMULATION OF A COMPUTER
CHASSIS
2.1 Discretization schemes
The computer chassis is discretized using
GAMBIT of the FLUENT software as shown in
Fig. 1. The discretization of the major heating
elements (VGA, RAM, CPU) is shown in Fig. 2.
The initial conditions for all the components in
the chassis and the environment are assumed at a
temperature of 24 C. This was achieved by
setting a fixed room temperature of 24 C for a
few hours before the computer was turned on. In
order to select an appropriate number of grids,
grid-dependent temperature was tested for the
CPU due to its highest heating power as shown in
Fig. 3 in which the number of grids are: 208465
(case 1), 119065 (case 2), 75282 (case 3), 60664
(case 4), 42192 (case 5), 32338 (case 6), 24090
(case 7), and 21910 (case 8). It is clearly shown
that the CPU temperature increases significantly
when the grid number decreases beyond 42192
(case 5). The sensitivity of grid number on
simulated velocity for case 1 and case 4 is shown
in Fig. 4, and both cases show a similar result.
Therefore a grid number of 60664 (case 4) is used
in this study to ensure convergence and accuracy
of the CFD results.

Fig. 1 Discretization of the computer chassis using GAMBIT.

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Fig. 2 Discretization of the main heating elements

(VGA, RAM, CPU).

Fig. 3 Grid-dependent temperatures of

CPU.

Fig. 4 Velocity distributions of case 1 (left) and case 4 (right) on the center plane of CPU.

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Table 1 Data of Major Components used in build-in fan on the CPU were not modified. The
Simulations. conventional fan behind the power supply is
difficult to simulate due to its complexity inside
Component Dimensions Material Heating Rate the power supply. Therefore, this fan is
(in cm) (in kW/m3)
intentionally disabled, both in experiment and in
CPU 6  6  0.2 Silicon 2135.2 CFD simulation, in order to evaluate the effects of
RAM 13.3  2.8  0.15 Silicon 316.3 the additional fan and the new openings on
North Bridge 3.6  3.7  0.2 Silicon 397.4 enhancement of heat dissipation. Besides, most
South Bridge 2.7  2.8  0.2 Silicon 148.5 computers have a power supply which is isolated
VGA 6  6  0.15 Silicon 488.9 from the rest of the computer by its metal cover.
Power Supply 14  17.5  8.5 Fr-4 3.26
This was proved by measuring the flow field
inside the computer when the fan is in operation,
Hard Disk 14  11.5  2.3 Fr-4 19.2
and it was concluded that the fan causes a
VCD 17.5  17.5  4 Fr-4 3.71 negligible amount of flow. The only significant
impact when the fan is not in operation is a higher
temperature of the power supply (~3 C higher).
2.2 Validation of CFD simulation However, this change would not affect the flow
The computer under consideration is a typical fields in the computer chassis significantly.
Acer desktop computer with a Pentium III 1 GHz Figure 5 depicts the configuration of the main
CPU, two Kinston SD-RAMs, and a 40 G hard elements in the chassis. The computer chassis is
disk. Dimensions and heating powers of the major covered by an insulation layer in order to yield a
heating elements in the chassis are listed in stable temperature measurements and an accurate
Table 1. The powers of the main heating elements calculation of the energy dissipated in new
in the chassis were obtained from the chassis configurations. The ambient temperature
manufacturer. In order to validate CFD simulation is maintained at 24 C throughout the experiment.
of this study, the computer chassis with some The opening is a 7 cm7 cm square hole which
main heating sources are modeled and can be open or closed; or can be used for the
temperatures at some reference points are installation of the additional fan if needed. The
measured against CFD predictions. Since the additional fan is a 6-cm diameter industrial fan
scope of the work is not to significantly change with a rated air velocity of 3 m/s. However, due to
the current chassis hardware, the existing fan a built-in screen which is used to collect dirt, the
behind the power supply on the back of the average air velocity of the fan is measured to be
chassis cover, the air inlet and exit, and the small around 1.5 m/s. The inlet air velocity of the fan

Fig. 5 Simulation of the main heating elements in the chassis.

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Table 2 Temperature difference between A scoping calculation was carried out to simulate
measurements and CFD predictions (without the effects of the openings without the operation
the operation of the fan behind power supply) of the additional fan. It shows that a fairly
(all temperatures are in C). substantial amount of heat can be removed from
the chassis due to natural convection alone.
Heating element Measurement CFD Differences The measured and CFD predicted temperatures at
Simulation (%)
some reference points are listed in Table 2
CPU 35.9 33.7 -6.1 without the operation of the fan behind the power
RAM 38.1 37 -2.9 supply. In general, the relative differences are
North Bridge 34.4 32 -7.0 within 10%. Large temperature differences occur
South Bridge 43.9 47.2 +7.5 in the CPU (due to its geometric complexity),
North Bridge and South Bridge (due to a large
VGA 45.1 43 -4.7
number of wires in their vicinity). The reference
Power Supply 40.6 42.2 +3.9 point of temperature measurement for each major
Hard Disk 43.1 44.1 +2.3 component is at the center of the component’s
VCD 38.4 39.1 +1.8 outer surface. This temperature is also defined as
the component average temperature when the
amount of energy removal from each component
is fixed at this value in CFD simulation. The flow is calculated.
rate and direction of the air flowing through each
opening (if there is any) depend on some factors 2.3 CFD simulations of chassis design
such as whether the additional fan is in operation Other than the existing air inlet and outlet
or not, the orientations and locations of the fan, openings on the back side of the chassis case,
and the number and locations of the holes. In this possible locations for installing an additional fan
study, boundary conditions of each opening are (or just openings) are depicted in Fig. 6 in which
specified only when the opening is installed with five locations are assumed as follows: one on the
a fan. For other holes with no fan installed, the front, one on the top and three on the side. The
initial conditions are specified as the ambient reason of using three locations for the side fan is
temperature (i.e., 24 C) and the ambient pressure that the side fan is most likely to be in the vicinity
(i.e., 1 bar) for CFD simulation. The flow of the major heating elements. Therefore, the
conditions such as the flow velocity, flow location of the side fan needs extra attention.
direction, and pressure differential across any However, only one side fan (or opening) will be
opening are determined when CFD prediction of used once the optimal location of the side fan (or
the CPU temperature converges to a steady state. opening) is determined in the rest of this study.

Fig. 6 Locations of fans (or openings).

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The three side openings, each of them can be a
fan, are located in the positions in which they
blow in (or suck out) air right on the surfaces of
the CPU, RAM, and South Bridge respectively.
The hole on the top is located in the middle of the
top side of the chassis case. The front hole is
located below the hard disk. In order to simplify
the descriptions of various CFD simulation cases,
the symbol “(X,Y,Z)[side top front]”, which
designates the location and air flow condition of a
fan or an opening, is used as follows:
 (X,Y,Z) is defined as the number of fan on the
side, the number of fan on the top, and the
number of fan on the front; and
 [side top front] represents the conditions of
the fans or holes on the side, top, and front,
respectively as the following:
B(low): a fan blows air in
S(uck): a fan sucks air out
O(pen): a hole is open
C(losed): a hole is closed
For instance: (0,1,0)[CBO] represents that the
hole on the side is closed, a fan is located on the
top and it blows air in, and the hole on the front is
open. In order to eliminate the number of
simulation cases, the effects of each of the three
fans located on the side are analyzed separately to
find the best location for fan (or opening)
installation. Then, possible optimal combinations
of the additional fan and holes are proposed. As
stated below, there are three possible locations for
installing a side fan. The location of the side fan
or opening will be selected depend on the abilities
of heat removal of the three side fans.
2.3.1 Effects of the side fans
The following analysis assumes a single fan on
the side and all the other holes are closed. A cut-
off view of velocity distributions on the chassis
center on the x-y plane with different fans
(FanCPU, FanRAM, FanSB) operating
independently are shown in Fig. 7. (This figure
shows three cases: (1,0,0)[BCC]-FanCPU,
(1,0,0)[BCC]-FanRAM, and (1,0,0)[BCC]-FanSB.
It is clearly shown that the average velocity for
the case of FanCPU (0.34 m/s) is substantially
lower than those of the cases FanRAM and
FanSB (0.63 m/s and 0.65 m/s, respectively).
Similarly, the corresponding temperature
distributions are shown in Fig. 8 in which the case
with FanCPU operating has the highest average
temperature among the three cases. Since the
FanCPU is very close to the air outlet, it can be
concluded that an ideal fan should be located at a
position far away from the air outlet in order for

Fig. 7 A cut-off view of velocity distributions on the chassis center on the x-y plane with three different fans
(FanCPU, FanRAM, FanSB) operating individually (case (1,0,0)[BCC]).

Fig. 8 A cut-off view of temperature distributions on the chassis center on the x-y plane with three different fans
(FanCPU, FanRAM, FanSB) operating individually (case (1,0 ,0)[BCC]).

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Table 3 Effects of the additional fan on surface temperatures of some main elements (all temperatures are in C).

FanSB FanCPU FanRAM FanTop FanFront

(1,0,0)[BCC] (1,0,0)[BCC] (1,0,0)[BCC] (0,1,0)[CBC] (0,0,1)[CCB]
CPU 32.2 30.7 31.4 31.1 32.4
RAM 30.9 33.3 30 32.9 35.8
NB 30.7 28.7 28.4 29.5 31.4
SB 30.3 40.6 34 33.7 35.1
VGA 32 37.3 34.1 32.6 36.7
PS 40.1 36.9 36.6 36 41.5
HD 35.6 44.5 38.4 36.9 36.1
VCD 35.6 40.6 33.5 29.3 35.7

the air to carry more energy away. Table 3 lists
the surface temperatures of some main elements
as predicted from CFD simulation as a single side
fan is added and the other four holes are closed. If
we are more concerned with the heat dissipation
from the chip-based heating elements (i.e., CPU,
RAM, North Bridge, South Bridge, and VGA
which are more susceptible to thermal fatigue),
FanRAM seems to have the best overall
performance among all the three side fans. As
described above, FanRAM induces a rather longer
air stream between the fan and the air exit on the
back of the chassis case than any of the other two
fans. FanRAM is hence used as the side fan for
the rest of this study. The location of the side fan
or opening is thus that of FanRam for the rest of
this study.
2.3.2 Effects of top fan
With a fan on the top operating (i.e., case
(0,1,0)[CBC]), the velocity and temperature
distributions on the cut-off plane of the chassis
are shown in Fig. 9. The figure shows that a main
stream is flowing from the top fan, through the
area near the CPU, and then exits from the air
outlet. Table 3 also lists the temperatures of the
main elements when the top fan is operating. As
compared with the temperature measurements of
no additional fan, enhancement of heat dissipation
is very obvious for almost all of the elements with
a top fan operating. The reason is that, as stated
above, a longer air stream from the fan to the air
exit in the chassis tends to remove more energy.
2.3.3 Effects of front fan
With a fan on the front operating (i.e., case
(0,0,1)[CCB]), the temperature distributions and
velocity distributions on the cut-off plane of the
chassis are shown in Fig. 10. Table 3 also lists the
temperatures of the main elements when the top
fan is operating. As compared with the measured
temperatures with no additional fan, VGA, SB,
and HD all show a substantial temperature drop as
they are located on the main air stream. However,

Fig. 9 A cut-off view of temperature and velocity distributions on the chassis center on the x-y plane with a fan on
the top operating (case (0,1,0)[CBC]).

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Fig. 10 A cut-off view of temperature and velocity distributions on the chassis center on the x-y plane with a fan on
the front operating (case (0 ,0, 1)[OCB]).

3. OPTIMIZATION OF CHASSIS DESIGN

Since failures of chips are attributed to computer

Fig. 11 Detailed flow fields of the vortex region (case
(0 ,0,1)[OCB]).
some elements such as RAM, CPU, and NB do
not dissipate energy as efficient as in other cases.
This is due to the occurrence of vortices in this
region where the air flow is rather stagnant and
heat convection is poor, as can be seen in the
enlarged flow fields in Fig. 11. Therefore, the
elimination of the occurrence of the vortices is
important especially for those temperature-
sensitive, chip-based elements. Elimination of the
vortices will be analyzed and discussed below.
failure in most cases, the remaining study will
focus on the chip-based elements such as CPU,
RAM, BN, SB, and VGA. In order to achieve an
optimal performance of heat dissipation, various
fans and opening conditions are simulated. The
enhancement of heat dissipation is calculated by
the product of the mass, specific heat, and
temperature drop (as compared with the case of
no additional fan without any openings) for a
specific chip-based element.
Table 4 lists all the CFD simulated temperatures
and enhancements of heat dissipation for the
cases without an additional fan (i.e., a purely
passive fashion). The amounts of heat convection
through all openings due to airflows are also
listed for comparison. In general the sum of heat
convection through all openings is ~3% higher
than the heat dissipated from the major heating
elements. The fairly well agreement is due to the
fact that the elements are not calculated in CFD
simulation, i.e., hard disk, power supply, and
VCD represent roughly 3% of the total heat
generation in the chassis. Even without the

Table 4 CFD simulation of temperatures and enhancements of heat dissipation without the additional fan.

CPU RAM NB SB VGA Enhancement of Heat convection

heat dissipation through openings
(0,0,0)[OOO] 33.5C 35.2C 30.5C 40.7C 39.8C 80.5 J 83.3 J
(0,0,0)[COO] 33.1C 34.7C 30.3C 41.4C 39.8C 90.2 J 92.8 J
(0,0,0)[OCO] 33.7C 36.2C 31.2C 45C 41.6C 33.1 J 33.9 J
(0,0,0)[OOC] 33.4C 35.3C 30.4C 41.2C 39.7C 80.8 J 83.4 J

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addition fan, temperature drops are still
substantial especially for SB and VGA when the
openings on the top and front are open. This is
believed to be due to natural convection as the
relatively hot elements such as SB and HD are
located in the lower part of the chassis. Again, a
longer air stream between the holes on the top and
front provides a favorable heat dissipation
mechanism. The best performance in this
category (no additional fan) is case (0,0,0)[COO]
in which an air stream induced by natural
convection passes through the main chips area,
i.e., CPU, RAM, and NB.
Similar simulations and calculations for the cases
with an additional fan on the side near the RAM
are listed in Table 5. In general, a side fan
(located near the RAM) is very effective in
reducing the temperatures of the three chip-based
heating elements especially for the case when the
hole on the top is closed and the hole on the front
is open (i.e., case (1,0,0)[BCO]). Also, blowing
air into the chassis is more favorable than sucking
the air out of the chassis. This is because the
ambient temperature is much lower than the
average air temperature in the chassis. The
situation may reverse if the computer is operated
in a high temperature environment.
The CFD simulated cases with a fan on the top
are summarized in Table 6. Again, with the top
fan blowing air into the chassis yields a better
performance than sucking air out of the chassis,
and the case with a front hole gives the best
enhancement of heat dissipation (i.e., case
(0,1,0)[OBO]).
The CFD simulated cases with a fan on the front
are summarized in Table 7. It is interesting to note
that the vortex region occurred in case
(0,0,1)[OCB] (see Figs. 10 and 11) can be
eliminated by opening the top hole (case
(0,0,1)[OOB]) which happens to give the best
performance. The temperature and velocity
distributions are shown in Figs. 12 and 13 in
which the vortex region disappears as the top hole
provides an extra exit for the hot air in the region
near the RAM.

Table 5 CFD simulation of temperatures and enhancements of heat dissipation with an additional fan on the side near
RAM.

CPU RAM NB SB VGA Enhancement of Heat convection

heat dissipation through openings
(1,0,0)[BOO] 31.6C 29.8C 28.2C 34.8C 34.6C 244.7 J 254.7 J
(1,0,0)[SOO] 33C 34.7C 30.2C 40.3C 38.2C 108.4 J 111.4 J
(1,0,0)[BCO] 31.6C 29.7C 28C 34.7C 34.3C 250.1 J 257.1 J
(1,0,0)[BOC] 31.7C 29.8C 28.6C 36.5C 34.5C 240.0 J 246.9 J
(1,0,0)[SOC] 33.2C 36C 30.7C 41C 39.3C 79.3 J 81.3 J
(1,0,0)[SCO] 32.8C 34.9C 30.3C 37.9C 38.3C 177.3 J 183.9 J

Table 6 CFD simulation of temperatures and enhancements of heat dissipation with an additional fan on the top.

CPU RAM NB SB VGA Enhancement of Heat convection

heat dissipation through openings
(0,1,0)[OBO] 31.6C 33.5C 29.7C 32.3C 34.9C 202.1 J 207.5 J
(0,1,0)[OSO] 32.4C 33.2C 29.5C 35.7C 37C 164.4 J 169.2 J
(0,1,0)[OBC] 32.4C 35.4C 30.7C 34.5C 34.3C 172.2 J 177.2 J
(0,1,0)[OSC] 32.4C 32.2C 29.5C 39.3C 38.4C 139.9 J 143.8 J
(0,1,0)[CBO] 31.6C 33.5C 30.3C 34.8C 34.5C 196.0 J 202.6 J
(0,1,0)[CSO] 32.2C 33.3C 29.5C 38.7C 37.9C 148.4 J 152.3 J

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Table 7 CFD simulation of temperatures and enhancements of heat dissipation with an additional fan on the front.

CPU RAM NB SB VGA Enhancement of Heat convection

heat dissipation through openings
(0,0,1)[OOB] 32C 34.9C 29.9C 34.1C 36.5C 159.0 J 163.1 J
(0,0,1)[OOS] 33C 35.2C 30.1C 44C 39.2C 82.9 J 82.5 J
(0,0,1)[OCB] 32.4C 34C 31C 35.1C 36.6C 109.1 J 112.4 J
(0,0,1)[COB] 31.9C 34.8C 30.5C 35.5C 36.4C 156.0 J 160.9 J
(0,0,1)[OCS] 33.4C 35.2C 30.3C 44.5C 40.1C 69.0 J 71.3 J
(0,0,1)[COS] 33C 35C 30.1C 41.6C 39.2C 94.5 J 97.1 J

Fig. 12 A cut-off view of temperature and velocity distributions on the chassis center on the x-y plane with a fan on
the front operating (case (0,0,1)[OOB]).

a. An additional fan does enhance heat

dissipation significantly, and the best location
for this fan is near the RAM on the side of the
chassis.
b. An overall optimal chassis configuration in
which all the heating elements have a
favorable heat dissipation behavior may not
exist. However, an optimal configuration in
terms of heat dissipation does exist if only
one specific element is under consideration.
c. A general guideline for enhancement of heat
dissipation is to develop a rather long main
air stream between the fan and the exit in
order to carry more energy away.
Fig. 13 Detailed flow fields of the vortex region (case
(0,0,1)[OOB]). d. In a rather cool environment, a fan blowing
air into the chassis is a better choice than
sucking air out of the chassis.
4. CONCLUSIONS
e. Even without the additional fan, substantial
As analyzed above, the following conclusions can amount of energy can be removed just by
be drawn: opening some holes on the chassis cover;
barring the consideration of the integrity of
the chassis.

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f. The best overall performance for chip-based

elements is the case with a side fan and an
opening on the front of the chassis.
g. The occurrence of vortices is an adverse
factor for heat dissipation. The elimination of
the vortex region can be achieved by
providing an exit near this region.

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