Mentor Blogs

No one really knows where the term “mind your P’s and Q’s” came from or what it really means. I always thought it had something to do with being polite and saying thank you. But in a recent article by Erich Buergel, our division General Manager, he talked about the 3 P’s of the business world and why we should mind them in our quest for greater productivity. They are (in no particular order) People, … Read More

Design Engineer, FloEFD, CFD, FloVENT

In my last post I pointed out a very obvious mistake in Blue Ridge Numerics’ “CFD Comparison Chart” of March 19th this year, which incorrectly stated that FloEFD can only handle incompressible sub-sonic flows. The reason I highlighted this as the most obvious mistake in the “CFD Comparison Chart” is that FloEFD can trace its history back to the Russian Aerospace Industry in the late 1980s originating … Read More

FloEFD, Fan Characterization, Global Environment Fund Management Corporation, CFD Comparison Chart, Turbomachinery, Upfront CFD, CFdesign, Blue Ridge Numerics, Jim Spann, Ed Williams, Pump Efficiency, Electronics Cooling, Rotating Reference Frame, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Solar Heating, Concurrent CFD

Rarely do I get a feeling of déjà vu in my professional life, but in March of this year something I was shown gave me a flashback to the 1980s. Some people will remember those halcyon days of two decades ago when commercial CFD was still in its infancy. Way back then the big commercial CFD vendors (Fluent, CHAM, Fidap, Flomerics, STAR-CD, and AEA) would regularly bring out CFD Comparison Charts comparing … Read More

Ed Williams, Desktop Engineering, FloEFD, Upfront CFD, Blue Ridge Numerics, Shock Capture, CFD Comparison Chart, SolidWorks, Supersonic, ANSYS, Transonic, Fluent, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Global Environment Fund Management Corporation, Concurrent CFD, Hypersonic, CFdesign, Jim Spann, CFX

If you’re involved in CFD in education in any way this will be of interest to you. Since shortly after Flomerics were acquired by Mentor Graphics we’ve been working towards getting out products into Mentor’s Higher Education Program (HEP), and we’ve finally got it done. To my knowledge, the availability of potentially millions of dollars worth of commercial CFD software, plus support and training, … Read More

Mentor HEP, Higher Education, Thermal Design, Concurrent CFD, Education, CFD, Thermal Management, FloVENT, Upfront CFD, Electronics Cooling, FloEFD

I admit it. I’m a petrol-head and so are the guys around the office. We watch Top Gear and Fifth Gear and come to work abuzz about the latest car news (and the stunts).  So when I heard about a new race car design that was completed in 8 weeks, I was pretty excited. I thought these things took much longer than that! The CEEMO Engineering concept car in action. Image courtesy of Voxdale. CEEMO Engineering … Read More

Automotive Design, car chassis, aerodynamic, FloEFD, What-If, concept car, Design Engineer

It’s not every day that I get to meet Olympians so please forgive me if I veer from the topic of ROI for one day. But I promise you this is a good story. Last week I got a chance to meet a very special group of people. They work at Bromley Technologies – a small but dedicated group of engineers and world-class athletes based in Sheffield, England. Bromley Technologies focuses on sports technology and … Read More

Olympics, Nicola Minichiello, Richard Bromley, CFD, Dan Fleetcroft, bob skeleton, Shelley Rudman, mechanical engineer, Mike Maddock, FloEFD, World Champion, Kristan Bromley

I thought in a world full of uncertainty (volcanoes still wreaking havoc in Europe, hung parliament in the UK and unrest in Southeast Asia), we could all use an uplifting story to carry us into the weekend. At the risk of dating myself, I remember walking around my high school campus on the first day of school many moons ago. The principal proudly mentioned that our high school was one of the first … Read More

FloEFD, Real World Design Challenge, CFD

After a week of uncertainty, the skies above Europe have finally opened (albeit slowly) to air traffic. Thanks to this pesky plume of volcano ash from Iceland, all of Europe has come to a complete standstill. At a micro level, I have been enjoying the quiet — no jet engines screeching overhead every few minutes.  At a macro level, this couldn’t have happened at a worst time for a recovering world economy.  … Read More

CFD, Design Engineer, Airflow, FloEFD, Flow Field

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 desensitizes the nasal passages, inhibiting … Read More

Skin Cancer, Reliability, Thermal Characterization, CFD, Electronics Cooling, Air Cooling, Thermal Design, LEDs, Light therapy, Energy Saving, FloEFD

It was very interesting to read this article about the work IBM are undertaking together with École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) on a 3D stacked architecture for multiple cores. The four year collaborative project, called CMOSAIC, promises to deliver an interconnection density from 100 to 10,000 connections per square millimetre … Read More

LEDs, LED Cooling, Liquid Cooling, CFD, Cold Plate, Automotive LEDs, Thermal Management, Fluid Dynamics, Electronics Cooling, FloEFD

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

Ok, last time I promised you to put a picture of me as Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama on here. Well here it is! What do you think? Now back to the PC model. In the post before the last one I said I will show you the Mainboard and its main features. As you can see I modelled the heat sink in pretty good detail. I did that to show you a little feature of FloEFD™V5 or better said in all of our FloEFD … Read More

FloEFD, FloEFD Project, Electronics Cooling, Thermal Design

Double-time.  Instantaneous.  Faster than the speed of light. No… these words do not describe the speed by which I reach a conclusion (although my husband would beg to differ). These words refer to our generation wanting things. We want it now. We can’t wait. We no longer purchase a DVD online and wait for it to arrive – at a touch of a button we stream the movie and watch it immediately. Forget about … Read More

Physical Prototype, CFD, Design Engineer, CAD-Embedded, Oil and Gas, Optimize, Drill Bit, FloEFD

Just a very quick post to alert you to the new ElectronicsCooling Magazine web site.  We’ve updated the look of the site to improve navigation ahead of the relaunch of the printed magazine. Here’s just some of the features of the new site: New look and feel Search Improved Article and Content Navigation by author; category (Calculation Corner, New Products, Technical Brief); channel (Industries, … Read More

Thermal Management, Thermal Design, FloEFD, FloTHERM.PCB, Electronics Cooling, Design Process, FloTHERM.PACK, CFD

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