Featured Blog

The etymology of the phrase ‘red hot’ dates back to the 14th century describing the colour attained by metal as it is heated. When attributed to people it can euphemistically be used to describe passion and attractiveness. Any colourful picture output from a numerical thermal simulation of an electronics system will have red depicting hot and [...]

“Authorities in the US have instructed Sony to conduct a recall of its Vaio laptops, after problems with overheating were reported.” started this article on the BBC’s web site.
There is a saying, ” the news is never as good or as bad as it is first reported”. And so it is with this story. It’s not [...]

This final blog in this series focuses on what is sometimes the most ethereal of CFD modelling arts, where and how to define your peripheral boundary conditions. A fancy phrase but in reality no more than deciding where the interface is between what you model and what you don’t. Heat is contemptuous of such divisions, [...]

I’ve not posted for a while, which is rather remiss of me. I underestimated the response we would get to our Heatsink 201 webinar, which I gather was our most popular ever, and the number of questions that people would ask. I had around 120 questions, which after removing duplicates and those to do with [...]

Any simulation technology based on an approach of subdividing a 3D model into many tessellated control volumes (e.g. the finite volume method) will be affected by the shape and size of those ‘mesh cells’ or ‘grid’. How fine should the mesh be to resolve the physics of the model being simulated? Good question. I used [...]

Sometimes the ability to apply artistic interpretation of your virtual product to your simulation model of it is limited or dictated (take your pick) by the available capabilities of that simulation tool. CFD simulation is quite a young technology, application to electronics cooling newer still, a mere 21 years old. Always pushing the limit of available computing resource, always adapting [...]

Never trust a TLA (three-letter acronym) or those who use them, unless the abbreviation provides some value in terms of repetitive usage  or is accepted as an industry standard. Too often TLAs are used as a screen between those who are listening and the incompetence of the person talking. TIGs (thermally insignificant geometries) as a [...]

Wiki quote: “A grille is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out.” For electronic products that need to be kept cool, getting cool air in [...]

Considering that CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is an advanced mathematical method for predicting fluid flow and heat transfer using a computational software approach I find it paradoxical that it is often as much an art as it is a science. A model by its very definition is a representation of something. A computer model is a virtual representation [...]

It was great to read that Dr. Vladimír Székely, has received the Dennis Gabor Award for Innovation for his work leading the team at MicReD on the development of the T3Ster (pronounced “trister”) technology. Congratulations Vladimír, it is richly deserved.
The Dennis Gabor (original Hungarian: Dénes Gábor) Award is Hungary’s highest technical honor, named after the [...]

Thermal management of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) is an important application for CFD software, which is helping designers use LEDs for high-power lighting applications. However, LEDs are changing our lives in so many more ways than simply providing more energy efficient or more aesthetic lighting solutions.
Last year I posted about a light therapy device that [...]

I’m just back from a very productive SEMI-THERM Conference where we launched our new FloTHERM IC product. We had meetings with the editors of 5 leading electronics magazines to coincide with the launch, which was made at our vendor presentation during the exhibition at the start of Tuesday afternoon. Well done to all involved! If [...]