Mentor Blogs

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

I’d like to introduce my first guest blogger, Travis Mikjaniec. Travis is a colleague of mine who is entering the world of home ownership. Travis has questioned some of the recommendations from the various home inspectors. In a multi-part series Travis will debunk or otherwise quantify the value of the recommendations. Starting the process of buying a house is a daunting task.  Beyond all the … Read More

Computational Fluid Dynamics, Duct Flow, CFD, FloVENT, HVAC

The recently released FloEFD HVAC Module brings a raft of features specifically tailored to enable FloEFD to be used for built environment simulations. FloEFD  has an unrivalled pedigree in the automating of advance CFD (computational fluid dynamics) techniques and capabilities, allowing the user to focus on application and not numerics. This democratisation of CFD brings the ability to simulate the … Read More

FloEFD HVAC Module, FloVENT, FloEFD, HVAC

It seems that my previous post resonated deeply with everyone – I received a lot of offline comments and my post inspired two of my colleagues (Boris and Andras) to do their own blog posts. This doesn’t shock me because Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest travel periods in the States so everyone is thinking about flying. So I thought we should stay with the subject for one more day and look at it … Read More

T3ster, Thermal, FloEFD, CFD, LED, QA, FloVENT, hybrid engine

On a recent trip to Japan I was surprised to find out how much their attitudes to smoking had changed. Cigarette prices have increased by over 30% in the last year and many public places now have smoking bans in force. For a country that has been renowned for its voracious attitude to smoking such a change in such a conservative culture is a bit of a shock. But as they say nowadays, “smoking is … Read More

contaminant distribution, FloVENT, CFD, HVAC, smoking

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