Mentor Blogs

You all know what a chatterbox I can be when I’m excited about something. So believe you me when I say the past few months have been excruciatingly hard for me. I’ve been sitting on some pretty big news and I’ve been itching to tell the world all about it.  Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, there’s no holding me back… FloTHERM XT as the enabling technology in the EDA/MDA design flow. The … Read More

Design Engineer, FloEFD, CFD, Thermal, FloTHERM XT

I put the title in quotes as it’s the title of a blog post by John Chawner at Pointwise who keeps a pleasantly vendor neutral(ish) blog about all things CFD called ‘Another Fine Mesh’, including the excellent weekly ‘This Week in CFD’ that is becoming a bit of a mecca for the CFD community. John’s blog focusses on a white paper Mentor issued recently about How to … Read More

Electronics Cooling, FloEFD, CFD, FloVENT

I live in a 3D world –3D simulation that is.  I remember when my work life went from 2D to 3D. I used to sit in a cubicle across from a software developer who specialized in graphics. He was a pesky lad. Whenever he’d get stuck on a particularly difficult piece of code he would throw missiles of all kinds at me – anything from crumpled pieces of paper to rubber bands and paper clips. I don’t know why … Read More

Design Engineer, FloEFD, CFD, Flowmaster, ROI

When I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, I knew I needed to analyze something related to the Olympics during this special time of year.  At first I thought I would analyze the Olympic Rings.  Not a real scientific CFD analysis, but just something cool and easy to do, by hollowing out some Olympic CAD rings and putting some flow through.  Well, using FloEFD to do this analysis was easy, … Read More

Shuttlecock, Olympics, Badminton, Birdie, aerodynamics, Creo, FloEFD, CFD, Compuational Fluid Dynamics

  Automotive systems are increasingly complex and time-to-market deadlines are increasingly tight. Design engineers face relentless pressure to develop consistently reliable products quickly, so it’s not surprising that virtual prototyping is popular. The technology supports the “What if?” thinking that leads to innovation. It’s the way Thomas Edison worked, but much faster, and faster still when … Read More

CIMdata, FloEFD, 1D and 3D models, Thomas Edison, Flomaster, Mentor Graphics

Downdraft Range Vent Hood Flow Analysis   One of the cool kitchen features that caught our attention when we saw what would become our house was that the stove had a retractable range vent.  It would pop up behind the stove, and sucks the air away from the side, then down through the counter, down through the floor, and out the side of the wall.  What really makes these things great is they open up … Read More

Stove, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Concentration, CFD, Range, Steam, Downdraft Vent, FloEFD

I’m not a fan of soccer (urm I mean football). I’m more of a Rugby gal myself. But on Saturday I along with 100+ fans played sardines in a small  pub and jostled for the best viewing position in front of one of the handful of TVs to watch the European Cup game.  The pub erupted when England scored the winning penalty shot. I had not seen so many grown men scream, dance and cry with joy at the same time. … Read More

Bronswerk Heat Transfer, CFD, Air-Cooled Cooler, ROI, Whizz-Wheel, fans, FloEFD

I admire mechanical engineers. I really mean it. If the world ever implodes, then I want to be hanging out with you guys. You know how to build and fix things. I on the other hand can probably contribute to the betterment of future society by picking berries (so long as I don’t have to deal with any creepy crawlies) or by spreading good cheer – I can’t help it I’ve got a sunny disposition (that … Read More

Design Engineer, FloEFD, CFD

 Smoke, Smoke, Everywhere? This has the possibility to be my most unpopular blog ever, which I’m ok with.  The topic of this blog is smoking, specifically the second hand kind.  Let me start by saying I am not a smoker.  I don’t care for the smell, and am happy that it is not allowed in most building, Vegas casino’s being the main exception. My mom was for a long time though, and in general it seems … Read More

Smoke, parts per million, CFD, Computational Fluid Dynamics, California, isosurfaces, Park, Concentration, FloEFD

I suddenly find myself needing to buy a car in England. I won’t bore you with why I had to let go of my beloved Audi but instead let me tell you that renting cars in England especially when you don’t drive stick shift is really really expensive. That is a very pleased blogger sitting in her fave car last year (and so happens her fave color too) Being a rather sensible person, at first I thought … Read More

FloEFD

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

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

For the past few months I’ve been talking about our user meetings – the Mechanical Analysis Division User2User meetings which are taking place all over the world. The venue was built at the site of an old castle. I just came back from the meeting in Germany and I can quite honestly say that it was one of the most energizing meetings I’ve attended in a long time. This was a meeting of “firsts”: the … Read More

Mechanical U2U, FloEFD, T3ster

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