January, 2010

Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD, is a simulation technology that provides 3D predictions of fluid flow and heat transfer for a modelled system. Be it an electronics enclosure or a building, insights into the often complex air flow patterns can help designers better understand the physical behaviour of their design. Communication of such insights helps others [...]

Using CAD-embedded CFD upfront and throughout the design process is the only way to go when it comes to compressing design schedules. We call this approach Concurrent CFD, as the CFD analysis can be done concurrently with design changes, taking upfront CFD to the next level. The product’s performance can be checked at each design [...]

Heatsinks aren’t a novel energy efficient type of washing bowl, they are parts that are placed on high powered IC packages to help remove the heat more effectively and thus lower the operating temperature of the package which in turn increases reliability, can improve performance etc.  etc. Such approaches are observed in nature, from Elephants [...]

Are you concerned with the thermal design of electronics systems? Are you a thermal, mechanical or electrical engineer wrestling with product design issues? Or are you an engineering manager or director concerned with improving your team’s overall design flow? Then Mentor’s new Electronics Cooling community is for you.
No electronics cooling or thermal design topic is [...]

The ability of FloTHERM to resolve a massive disparity in geometric length scale in a single model is for me its greatest strength. By not having to make simplifying assumptions to ignore either extremely small or truncate extremely large geometric parts and features, simulation accuracy can be better assured. The ‘die in a city’ model [...]

Electronics are small and getting smaller. The world in which we live is tending to stay at the same size. The one thing that typifies electronic thermal simulation models is the disparity of length scale that has to be accommodated. FloTHERM has been evolved to handle this disparity for over 20 years.  I, my fellow [...]

This series, despite being somewhat lengthy, is by no means a complete overview of the various methods, options and approaches to predicting component temperatures. Here is some stuff I didn’t cover…
My bias in this series is towards the prediction of component temperature via simulation using a 3D CFD approach adopted in our (as ever) market [...]