Mentor Blogs

A virtual version of one of the MGC data center representing one of the configurations tested. Image courtesy of Mentor Graphics. Over the weekend I realized I have become English. No, I haven’t picked up the accent. Nor do I eat Marmite. Actually eating Marmite can be relegated to one of those things I’d never do. Never, ever. So why have I become English? I tend to discuss the weather and temperature … Read More

FloVENT, HVAC, CFD, Optimize

The UK government has a policy for all year 10 or year 11 students to undertake a week’s work experience. Last week we welcomed a 15 year old student to the Mentor office where the FloTHERM and FloVENT software development is done. The student was tasked with simulating the air flow and temperature distribution in the office space using FloVENT. Using our own software to model our own offices … Read More

Electronics Cooling, FloVENT, CFD, HVAC, thermal comfort

Back in December I heard something on the radio that made me both sad and happy at the same time. It turns out that the last neon sign in Piccadilly Square in London was to be turned off by the end of the year. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing London at night, Piccadilly Sq is a sight to behold (for a picture click here ) The neon sign in question had been in use since 1987 and … Read More

FloEFD, CFD, Thermal Characterization, T3ster

‘Bits stuck onto other bits’, a succinct definition of an electronic product, if not a product that contains electronics. Soldering is the method of choice for getting the components to attach to the pcb, the layered board that contains the metallic traces connecting component pins to other component pins. Rivets, welds, screws or bolts for the chassis, some form of gluing or sticky adhesion … Read More

Electronics Cooling, CFD, thermal chokepoint, T3ster, thermal bottleneck

It’s that time of the year, when the weather turns cold and people start to think about winterizing their home to reduce heating costs.  Usually it takes the first winter heating bill to provide the motivation to undertake this task.  With this in mind, I would like to talk about pipe insulation.  Specifically, the foam wrap insulation you can find at any hardware store (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202318552/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)   In … Read More

FloEFD, Heat Transfer, CFD, pipe, Home Improvement, insulation

Have you ever had one of those days where it would have been better to have stayed in bed with the duvet pulled up firmly above your head? I’m sure most of us have had those kinds of days. Last week I was suffering from this malaise. I curbed the front wheel of our new car on the way to work, I dropped my breakfast bagel after taking the first bite (and yes a dropped bagel exhibits the same behavior … Read More

FloEFD, CFD, FloVENT

My colleague Ed and I were marvelling the other day at the CPU cooling unit from one of our training desktop PCs undergoing a repair. “What, all that just for that!?”. The CPU itself was but a small square wafer compared to the behemoth that was the ducted fan and heatsink with integral heatpipes mounted on top of it. Whereas transistor sizes are measured in nanometres cooling systems can … Read More

CPU cooling, Electronics Cooling, CFD, PC cooling, Heatsink

For the past few months I’ve been working behind the scenes on a very exciting project. I’ve been working with the good folks at the Aberdeen Group, a leading Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) industry consulting and research organization, to better understand the ROI of using simulation -- specifically CFD. Of course as a leading developer of CFD software we inherently understand the value of simulation … Read More

CFD, ROI, Concurrent CFD

Today is the first day of school in England. How do I know that? My first clue was the morning drive to work went back to 60 minutes. The second clue was the diversion/roadworks signs that popped up overnight as the city started tearing up roads in earnest again. The third and final clue was seeing lots of bleary-eyed kids in new school uniforms waiting to catch buses to school. Image courtesy of Microsoft … Read More

Pressure Drop, CFD

Welcome to Part V of a multi-part series, where in this installment Travis takes a look at his lawn mower. One of my first jobs as a new home owner was to mow the lawn.  As it happens, we had a friend with a lawn mower that was no longer using it, so he gave it to us.  When I went to pick it up, he was using words like, 1992, and “never maintained”, so I knew it wasn’t going to be a super awesome lawn … Read More

FloEFD, lawn mower, CFD

I don’t particularly care for airports. You rush to get to them. You rush thru check-in and push your way thru never-ending queues to go thru security and get the prerequisite pre-boarding massage (I seem to get pat downs as I go thru security a lot and even though I gladly submit to them I’m starting to think that they are a new service that the airlines provide and thus deserve a proper marketing … Read More

CFD, electromagnetic, Avionics, ROI, FloEFD, interference

Welcome to Part IV of a multi-part series, where in this installment Travis continues the “virtual” look at his crawlspace. In the previous installment of “this old CFD house”, we started to peel back the veil on my crawlspace and its moisture issue.  I analyzed the problem as it is, and we made some enlightening findings.  First, really the only way air is getting into the crawlspace is … Read More

Computational Fluid Dynamics, crawlspace, CFD, HVAC, FloVENT, humidity

Welcome to Part III of a multi-part series, where in this installment Travis takes a “virtual” look at his crawlspace. For this next installment of “this old CFD house”, and really the entire reason I started this blog series, I’d like to take a look in my crawlspace. Now, from what I understand, Feng Shui says running water is good for wealth. Well the opposite is true when you have … Read More

Computational Fluid Dynamics, crawlspace, CFD, HVAC, FloVENT, humidity

What a wonderful expression this is … putting feathers in our caps. I looked up the origins of this phrase and found that in the days gone by people used to put a new feather in the headgear of warriors for every enemy they defeated in battle. And the more feathers in the headdress, the more victories and the better the warrior. Our CFD battlefield is symbolic in nature but it exists nonetheless. And … Read More

Shortcut field, Bottleneck field, CFD, Award, EDN Hot 100, Electronics Cooling, Design Engineer, Design News Golden Mousetrap

Welcome to Part II of a multi-part series where, in this installment, Travis takes a look at a typical chimney. For this next installment of “this old CFD house”, I’d like to investigate another gremlin that was discovered during the inspection period of the house we are purchasing. This one related to the chimney. The current damper is rusted and hard to operate. According to the chimney expert we … Read More

Chimney, Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD, HVAC, efficiency, FloVENT