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Littleton, Colorado, August 2001 C&R Technologies, Inc. is introducing FloCAD®, a flow analysis module that joins the popular Thermal Desktop® and RadCAD® heat transfer analysis software suite. FloCAD provides unique and revolutionary capabilities for the thermal design of electronics packaging. Thermal Desktop is a design environment for generating thermal simulation models of electronics and vehicles. It is based in Autodesk’s AutoCAD® (R2000) and Mechanical Desktop® products, although little knowledge of CAD methodologies is required to use it. RadCAD is an optional thermal radiation analysis package for high temperature and/or vacuum applications. Using Thermal Desktop, engineers can use native AutoCAD or Mechanical Desktop drawings either directly as a thermal model, or indirectly as scaffolding for fast “snap on” attachment of Thermal Desktop elements, surfaces, and solids. CAD models imported using Autodesk’s STEP or IGES translators is also a commonly exploited option. Structural/FEM models (e.g., MSC/NASTRAN, SDRC’s FEMAP, IDEAS/FEA, etc.) can also be imported and used either as the basis of the thermal model (perhaps using automatic node suppression techniques), or merely as the basis of accurate interpolation and automated data exchange with structural software. FloCAD adds the capability of modeling flow circuits, including fans and convective heat transfer, attached directly to the surfaces and solids representing PCB boards, chips, etc. It is specifically targeted for electronic packaging design tasks, but since it provides full access to the powerful and general-purpose SINDA/FLUINT thermohydraulic analyzer, FloCAD will find use in other industries as well. FloCAD is fully compatible with Thermal Desktop features, including full parameterization using spreadsheet-like variables and arbitrarily complex expressions as input, rather than hardwired numbers. This allows complex models to be rapidly manipulated using a few keystrokes, meaning that updating or maintaining a model is trivially easy, as is performing sensitivity studies and investigating what-if scenarios. This provides access to SINDA/FLUINT’s Optimization and Reliability Engineering modules, which can be used to size components, maximize performance, find worst-case operating conditions (design cases), correlate models to test data, and even treat uncertainties statistically. “FloCAD is the answer both for thermal engineers who are troubled by the high cost and inflexibility of CFD approaches, as well as those who find nongeometric fluid network modeling (FNM) approaches to be too cumbersome because they lack strong connectivity to geometry-based heat transfer models.” said Cindy Beer, Director of Marketing for C&R. Headquartered just outside of Denver, Colorado, C&R is a world leader in software and technologies for thermal/fluid engineers in various industries, including electronics, automotive, and aerospace. Information about C&R’s products and services can be found at www.crtech.com. Shown below: A 3D thermal model of circuit boards on a chassis is combined with a ducted flow model representing coolant air circulated with a fan.
Formed in 1992, C&R Technologies provides products and services in the areas of heat transfer and fluid flow design and analysis. C&R Technologies are the authors of worldclass thermal and fluid software including SINDA/FLUINT, Thermal Desktop®, RadCAD®, FloCAD® and SinapsPlus®. For more information on C&R Technologies, Inc., contact us at 303.971.0292. ###
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