CFD software takes on embedded mesh technology

Daat Research Corp is claiming a breakthrough in accuracy and calculating speed for engineers performing thermal and flow analysis on electronic systems and subsystems.

Daat Research Corp is claiming a breakthrough in accuracy and calculating speed for engineers performing thermal and flow analysis on electronic systems and subsystems.

With the release of Coolit v5.0, Daat Research becomes the first CFD company to successfully incorporate embedded mesh technology.

This pioneering approach eliminates dependence on approximate model building techniques, such as resistor networks and lumped parameter (compact) models, thereby simplifying model building while increasing model fidelity and accuracy and delivering order of magnitude increases in calculation speed.

When solving the partial differential equations that govern the flow of fluids and heat, engineers use a grid (mesh) to split the domain into a set of control volumes (cells) tailored to the size, shape and physics of that particular space.

Components with fine details or dimensions require correspondingly small grid cells, while larger, slower changing spaces suffice with larger cells.

Since an abrupt transition from small to large cells can cause major accuracy and stability losses, extra grid cells must be added to modulate the transition.

High accuracy also demands numerous small cells, slowing down the calculations and requiring more computer memory.

Once the cell count gets too large, it can overwhelm even the most powerful workstation.

Most commercial CFD programs will choke on well under one million grid cells.

To avoid these problems, engineers resort to submodelling for complex systems.

They create models within models, replacing some subsystems with simplified models based on lumped parameters (compact model) or a resistor network.

Defining these submodels is a formidable task, and a model developed for one environment will not work in another.

With the introduction of embedded mesh technology, Coolit v5.0 eliminates the guesswork associated with standard submodelling techniques.

The software creates individual mesh systems for objects within the system using a grid setup based on the length scales and the physics of each zone.

Coolit v5.0 manages communications among the multiple zones ensuring reliable, fast and stable convergence.

The entire system can be modelled in one swoop with a dramatic reduction in solution time.

In a problem simulating the use of multizone grids, Coolit v5.0 computed the flow through four pin-fin heatsinks with a reduction in cell count from over one million to just sixty-two thousand and a resultant savings in compute time - from over 8 hours to less than 15 minutes.

Coolit v5.0 operates on all Windows-based platforms: Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and XP.

An annual floating licence, which includes free CoolPlot visualisation software and full technical support, is priced at $18,000.

Coolit V5.0 is available for delivery now.

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