Mentor Blogs

I recently spent some time rummaging around my basement. I suppose my basement is not unlike many others — it’s kind of my family’s catch-all storage place for items too big to fit in a closet. Besides housing my HVAC and water heating systems, my basement is home to a variety of holiday decorations, lots of canned, bottled, and bulk food items, a small collection of mismatched folding tables … Read More

Modeling, analog modeling

As engineers we often use “system” to describe different levels of design abstraction. Chip designers refer to integrated circuits as systems on chips. Audio designers refer to an amplifier as a system. Aircraft brake designers create systems for stopping aircraft. There truly are a variety of ways to define and implement a system. And most things we call a system are really just a subsystem … Read More

Modeling

Once in awhile I work with customers who want to move VHDL-AMS models between multiple simulators. The ability to do so is one of the great promises of standard modeling languages and, at face value, should be an easy task. After all, if a language is an industry standard, and multiple simulation tools claim to support it, then moving models between tools should be a plug-and-play process, right? Well, … Read More

Modeling, IEEE 1076.1

One of the most important things I’ve learned during my 20+ years working with simulation tools is simply this: my simulation results will only be as good as my models. While not a revolutionary concept, it’s none the less a fact of system simulation that anyone using a simulator in their design process knows. But there is an equally important companion principle: my model will only give me the … Read More

Mixed-Signal, IEEE 1076.1, Modeling

All EDA companies share a common business objective: convincing customers to buy their tools over the competition. Among other marketing tasks, we search for graphics that best express the value of our tools, graphics that customers can look at and immediately understand. Having worked on many charts and graphs myself over the years, I’ll admit it’s not an easy job to find or develop just the right … Read More

Modeling, Add new tag

In May 2010 I wrote about a couple of personal transport projects in a post titled Segway to U3-X. Naturally, the Segway Personal Transport (PT) is in production with a variety of options and models. Honda’s U3-X, though cool and seemingly quite practical, as far as I know has yet to see a showroom floor. Perhaps the U3-X was just a platform for Honda’s engineers to research mobility possibilities. … Read More

Modeling, ideas

Admittedly, I’m a bit biased. After 20+ years in the EDA industry, I’ve developed increasing confidence in modern simulation technology. In short, I generally believe what SystemVision tells me about the systems I analyze. With the right models and simulation settings, I am confident my simulation results will closely match lab measurements on prototype hardware. Part of building confidence is simply … Read More

Mechatronic, Modeling

This final blog in this series focuses on what is sometimes the most ethereal of CFD modelling arts, where and how to define your peripheral boundary conditions. A fancy phrase but in reality no more than deciding where the interface is between what you model and what you don’t. Heat is contemptuous of such divisions, it will spread out from it’s source and keep on spreading via convection, conduction … Read More

modelling, boundary condition, CFD, BC, Model, Modeling, Electronics Cooling

Any simulation technology based on an approach of subdividing a 3D model into many tessellated control volumes (e.g. the finite volume method) will be affected by the shape and size of those ‘mesh cells’ or ‘grid’. How fine should the mesh be to resolve the physics of the model being simulated? Good question. I used to ask my art teacher how to draw curtains. You don’t have to be a comic to figure out … Read More

modelling, Electronics Cooling, CFD, Model, Modeling, Grid, Mesh

Sometimes the ability to apply artistic interpretation of your virtual product to your simulation model of it is limited or dictated (take your pick) by the available capabilities of that simulation tool. CFD simulation is quite a young technology, application to electronics cooling newer still, a mere 21 years old. Always pushing the limit of available computing resource, always adapting to the ever … Read More

modelling, compact model, Electronics Cooling, BCI, Model, Modeling, Fan

Never trust a TLA (three-letter acronym) or those who use them, unless the abbreviation provides some value in terms of repetitive usage  or is accepted as an industry standard. Too often TLAs are used as a screen between those who are listening and the incompetence of the person talking. TIGs (thermally insignificant geometries) as a TLA is neither useful nor accepted, I just made it up. Thermally … Read More

modelling, Electronics Cooling, flomcad, CFD, Model, Modeling, MCAD

Wiki quote: “A grille is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out.” For electronic products that need to be kept cool, getting cool air in through grille work is commonplace, thermal designers love them, EMC/EMI designers don’t. For such products, keeping … Read More

science, CFD, Electronics Cooling, art, Modeling, modelling, Model

Considering that CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is an advanced mathematical method for predicting fluid flow and heat transfer using a computational software approach I find it paradoxical that it is often as much an art as it is a science. A model by its very definition is a representation of something. A computer model is a virtual representation of a system (e.g. a laptop, a rack mounted server, … Read More

science, CFD, art, Modeling, modelling, FloVENT, Model