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, it will spread out from it’s source and keep on … [Read more...]

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 to ask my art teacher how to draw … [Read more...]

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, … [Read more...]

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 TLA is neither useful nor accepted, I just … [Read more...]

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 through grille work is commonplace, thermal designers love them, EMC/EMI … [Read more...]