Mentor Blogs

Last time I promised I’d drill down into more detail about the difference between the CAD-integrated up-front approach to CFD and CAD-embedded Concurrent CFD. CAD-integrated CFD tools are essentially stand-alone tools launched from within the CAD system whereas Concurrent CFD is fully built into the CAD system. So what’s the real difference between the two? CAD-integrated CFD tools use the same approach … Read More

Upfront Analysis, Traditional CFD, Upfront CFD, CAD Integration, CFD, CAD Embedded, FloEFD, Fluent Design, Concurrent CFD, Design Process

Back in June I posted ‘Air – Is it Running Out of Gas?’ and put forward the view that for general computing applications air isn’t running out of gas just yet. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that I suspect the general public has concerns about leaks. Most people have passed cars stuck on the highway with a blown heater hose and seen water on the ground, and I’ve had an automotive water … Read More

Liquid Cooling, Fluent Design, Thermal Management, Asetek, CAD Embedded, Apple iMac, Upfront Analysis, Electronics Cooling, FloEFD, Upfront CFD, CFD, Concurrent CFD

I normally don’t do posts about these kinds of things but I was really excited to hear this. Recently FloEFD was given an EDN Magazine’s Hot 100 Electronic Products for 2009 award. The Hot 100 consists of EDN’s list of “the products and technologies that in 2009 heated up the electronics world and grabbed the attention of our editors and our readers.” Fantastic! I know I’m a proud parent but FloEFD … Read More

Concurrent CFD, EDN Hot 100, CAD, FloEFD, Physical Prototype, Electronics Cooling, Embedded

I was on a conference call and WebEx yesterday with the NAFEMS CFD Working Group, of which Mentor Graphics is a member. One of the people on the call had a lot of background noise on his phone, which turned out to be a due to a fan by his desk to keep his computer cool. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a memory hungry, CPU intensive activity so I guess he was running a fairly substantial case. … Read More

Thermal Management, Thermal Design, Upfront Analysis, Concurrent CFD, Design Process, CFD, Upfront CFD, Kolb's Learning Styles, X-ray Vision, Electronics Cooling, Experiential Learning

Some people think that because Concurrent CFD is so easy to use it must be simplistic. Nothing could be further from the truth. FloEFD has some very sophisticated physical models for cavitation, combustion, etc. plus by being CAD-embedded it’s also easy to use the CFD results to drive other simulation packages within the MCAD environment. Not limited to upfront design, Concurrent CFD can be used continuously … Read More

Reaction Forces, Force Prediction, Upfront Analysis, CAD Integration, CFD, CAD Embedded, Upfront CFD, Fluent Design, Fluid Dynamics, Concurrent CFD, Design Process

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 iteration, leading to a more fluent CFD process that gives increased confidence … Read More

Fluid Dynamics, Fluent Design, Upfront Analysis, CAD Integration, CFD, CAD Embedded, Upfront CFD, Electronics Cooling, FloEFD, Concurrent CFD, Design Process

I’ve been getting some positive feedback on my previous posts on Concurrent CFD so I thought I’d continue with the thread. I’ve described traditional CFD, upfront CFD and concurrent CFD as very different entities - which they are, but I ought to point out that they represent the evolutionary spectrum of how the CFD technology itself has been packaged over the years. Partly this change results from … Read More

Upfront Analysis, Traditional CFD, Upfront CFD, CAD Integration, CFD, CAD Embedded, FloEFD, Fluent Design, Concurrent CFD, Design Flow

Me too, though being in the UK I tend to watch more Formula 1. As part of my job I often come across cool pieces of work done by our customers that we can’t publicise the work for reasons of confidentiality. This work by Voxdale is an exception though. It was done a couple of years back, not that long after Voxdale was founded, which makes it all the more impressive, and was done for Champ Car, now … Read More

Upfront CFD, Upfront Analysis, CAD Integration, CFD, CAD Embedded, FloEFD, Fluent Design, Concurrent CFD, Design Process

As promised, here’s the second part of the explanation of why Concurrent CFD is different, or to use a cliché, a paradigm shift in CFD. The animation below looks more closely at why concurrent CFD is different to conventional and upfront CFD. By expanding the CFD process we can see it involves quite a number of steps. In going through the animation you will see that both conventional and upfront CFD … Read More

Upfront CFD, CAD Integration, Concurrent CFD, CAD Embedded, Traditional CFD, Upfront Analysis, FloEFD, Fluent Design

Happy New Year everyone. I hope it’s a prosperous and peaceful year for both you and your company. As promised, here’s a Flash animation showing the difference between traditional CFD, upfront CFD and concurrent CFD which needs some introduction. In traditional CFD, the model geometry is first exported from the CAD system. That’s the easy part. The geometry then needs to be re-imported into the CFD … Read More

Upfront CFD, CAD Integration, Concurrent CFD, CAD Embedded, Fluent Design, Traditional CFD, FloEFD

If you haven’t come across this short video, it gives a good overview of how FloEFD is blazing a path of least resistance so mechanical designers can streamline their workflow using Concurrent CFD – CFD embedded in the mechanical design environment. Note that it’s ONLY by embedding CFD within the MCAD tool that these time savings can be achieved, and FloEFD is the ONLY Concurrent CFD solution … Read More

Concurrent CFD, Design Process, CFD, Upfront Analysis, FloEFD, Fluent Design

It could save your company a shed load of time and money… Interested? OK, here’s some research by Aberdeen Group, which I presented at several of the recent Solutions Expos. First off, the Mechanical Analysis Division’s customers choose Mentor’s tools because they recognise them as being the best. They don’t just make do with tools available as part of another software suite, as shown below in the … Read More

Thermal Management, Concurrent CFD, Cost Saving, CFD, Fluent Design, Thermal Design, Design Process, Electronics Cooling

While I was waiting for the last few people for my presentation ‘Thermal Design: A Key Part of the Electronics Design Flow’ at the UK Solutions Expo at the Heritage Motor Center in Gaydon a couple of weeks back I thought I’d poll the audience with a couple of questions. It’s rare that I get to speak to an audience of electronics engineers, so I was interested to see how they view thermal design. First … Read More

Upfront Analysis, Thermal Design, Design Collaboration, Design Process, Concurrent CFD, FloTHERM.PCB, Fluent Design, FloEFD

Some more thoughts on the fluent design vs. laminar flow analogy In my last post I used the example of an airfoil to illustrate a product design (object) that passes smoothly, or fluently through the design process (a fluid) without causing much turbulence (design rework) that otherwise disrupts the downstream flow (late in the design process) making the flow take longer to recover (increasing the … Read More

Upfront Analysis, Concurrent CFD, Design Flow, CFD, Fluent Design, Fluid Dynamics, Design Process, FloEFD