Mentor Blogs

Hello Everybody   Previously, I co-authored a semitherm paper on the use of our HVAC CFD tool, FloVENT, on the design of a Mentor Graphics data center.  Recently I have seen this topic republished in the data center journal with the title “EDA Vendor takes its Own Advice on Data Center Design”.  I find this topic interesting, so I thought I’d blog about this and break from my typical … Read More

Raised Floor, Rack, Semitherm, CFD, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Cabinet, HVAC, Mentor Graphics, Data Center, FloVENT

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

Effective use of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation tool requires at least a working knowledge of fluid dynamics itself. Tools alone don’t make for a good engineer. When interviewing for jobs within the Mechanical Analysis Division (and way back into Flomerics days too) a common question posed to tease out such an understanding is to describe the air flow patterns in and around a … Read More

FloVENT, HVAC, CFD

One thing the Mechanical Analysis Division is not guilty of is vendor hubris. Despite the passion we have about our CFD based simulation solutions we know our place, especially in terms of where best to apply our solutions throughout the design process. CFD is a very powerful tool to predict 3D heat air flow and heat transfer but it certainly isn’t the only approach. As is common in both electronics … Read More

FloVENT, HVAC, Electronics Cooling, thermal comfort, U-Value

Conventional wisdom has it that the best place to put a radiator in a room is under the window. However, there’s nothing conventional about wisdom and one should be obliged to question and verify those facts that we take for granted. CFD and its ability to predict air flow and heat transfer offers an unrivalled efficient method to study such applications. Using the concept of PPD (percentage people … Read More

FloVENT, HVAC, CFD, radiator, thermal comfort

Sometime between 40 and 100 thousand years ago humans started to wear clothes, an estimate as accurate as you’d expect for something that wasn’t documented at the time. Earliest estimate of  humans documenting language are a mere 5000 years ago. One can only assume that it wasn’t modesty or fashion that drove the adoption of clothing, but comfort. Much of what we still do today, frequently … Read More

thermal comfort, Fanger, FloVENT, CFD, PPD, radiator, HVAC, PMV

With the gulf stream having shifted south and now flowing happily somewhere high over Paris, the summer weather in the UK has been ‘unseasonably’ (literally) wet and miserable. People’s heating has been thermostatically popping back on all over the country which for July is unheard of. So with this as the background and in the context of a stagnating world economy, ever continuing … Read More

HVAC, radiator, FloVENT, thermal comfort

From a software user’s perspective it really doesn’t matter exactly how that application was developed. A user is concerned with functional capability (what the software does), non-functional performance (how the software behaves) and ultimately their personal experience when using the software. Those tasked with creating the application though need to meet such user expectations whilst … Read More

FloTHERM PCB, Agile development, FloVENT, SCRUM

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

In 1989 Flomerics was the first organisation to provide application specific CFD based simulation software where all pre and post-processing capabilities were contained within a single WIMP based graphical user interface. That pioneering period involved missionary sales to add simulation to the arsenal of the design engineer, enabling virtual prototyping to be used as a precursor to physical build and … Read More

FloVENT, Electronics Cooling, HVAC, XML

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

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

What do you call someone who doesn’t believe in Father Christmas? A rebel without a Claus. Right, that’s that out of the way. This week Facebook announced that it plans to build a 300,000 ft^2 data center in Lulea, Sweden. The Lulea business agency who helped attract Facebook to their city are dutifully excited as should Facebook be as they look set to capitalise on 10 months each year of … Read More

data center cooling, data centre, Data Center, HVAC, PUE, Electronics Cooling, FloVENT

It would only have cost me an extra £170, a small extra compared to the cost of the rest of the build, but I decided against laying thermal insulation boards directly under the underfloor electric heating mats. Surely better to leak some of the heat down to heat the 100mm thick concrete screed which would maintain its heat through those cold winter weeks, giving thermal support to the heating mats in … Read More

FloVENT, Electronics Cooling, HVAC, underfloor heating

3D simulation can provide a detailed prediction of temperature and heat flux values at 10s of 1000s of points in a 3D model, experimental methods are somewhat limited in terms of the wealth of data they are capable of providing. But hey, this isn’t going to degrade into a pitched battle between simulators and experimentalists, nowadays good engineers (should) do both. “No one believes simulation … Read More

HVAC, Electronics Cooling, underfloor heating, FloVENT