Mentor Blogs

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

It’s been over two years since the foundations went in for the extension we’re building on our house. In that time I’ve come to respect and somewhat rely on glib phrases such as “Good things come to those who wait” and “Patience is a virtue”. I told my better half we’d be moved in by Christmas, I didn’t say which one though. In this blog series of … Read More

FloVENT, Electronics Cooling, HVAC, underfloor heating

As a FloTHERM, FloVENT or FloEFD user you might not realise it but you are part of a global and growing user community. This year we are hosting 3 ‘U2U’ (user to user) meetings in Germany, France and the UK. This is a golden opportunity for you to meet other users, hear about our exciting new products, see fascinating keynote and user presentations, learn advanced software tips and tricks, … Read More

U2U, FloEFD, user meeting, FloVENT

I travel a fair bit. Sometimes it’s a short hop across the channel to the Continent and sometimes it’s a long haul flight to the States. Regardless of whether the flight is one hour, 3 hours or 15 hours, you mentally need to prepare yourself for several things: sitting next to someone with a cold/cough, sitting behind someone who will immediately recline their seat and reduce your usable leg space … Read More

FloVENT, FloEFD, Visualization

Hi everyone, I’ve been a bit silent for the past couple of months but there’s a good reason for it. I’ve been working behind the scenes organizing a few events. And now I’m very pleased to announce our upcoming Mechanical U2Us — a series of Mechanical Analysis Division specific User 2 User meetings which will be held around the world. If you are unfamiliar with the Mechanical … Read More

FloVENT, FloEFD, Mechanical U2U

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

FloTHERM, and its sister product FloVENT, have been going since 1989. Many in the Mechanical Analysis Division in Mentor have been working on these products for that time, personally I’m up to 15 years. It’s testament to the products and their success that our passion for them continues unabated. V9.2 was released this week, the ~20th release in these product lines. Many vendors will stand … Read More

CTM, Electronics Cooling, bottleneck, FloVENT

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

The CAD/CAM/CAE market has been fairly stable over the past few years – we get a merger to two every few years. But over the past couple of months we’ve seen a couple of acquisitions. While one acquisition in a quiet market is interesting, two may be the beginnings of a trend. So I thought we could look at the recent developments from the perspective of you – the end-user of technology — and how … Read More

CFD, CFdesign, Acusim, FloVENT, FloEFD

When I saw that Robin had written a blog about a beer fridge I thought he had beaten me to the punch. In my spare time I too have been using our CFD tools to analyze a beer fridge. The differences are I am using FloVENT  and my fridge is a self-service refrigerated showcase.  The story of the showcase is not complete but I want to provide the first installment. The idea of the open (self-service) refrigerated … Read More

Refrigerated Display, CFD, Refrigerator, FloVENT