Thermal
Desktop® is a PC based design environment for generating thermal
models of electronics and vehicles. Using Thermal Desktop, engineers
can use CAD drawings either directly as a thermal model, or indirectly
as scaffolding for fast "snap on" attachment of Thermal Desktop
elements, surfaces, and solids. Thermal Desktop is a graphical user interface (GUI) for SINDA/FLUINT.
Thermal
Desktop is a PC based design environment for generating thermal
models of electronics and vehicles. Using Thermal Desktop, engineers
can use CAD drawings either directly as a thermal model, or indirectly
as scaffolding for fast "snap on" attachment of Thermal Desktop
elements, surfaces, and solids. Thermal
Desktop incorporates both familiar parameter based (TRASYS like)
finite difference surfaces with finite elements with CAD technology
to model thermal problems. Thermal Desktop develops the capacitance
and conductance network for input to SINDA/FLUINT.
Thermal Desktop has thermal analysis specific type of capabilities
such as applying contact conductance, insulation, heat loads, and
heaters. Thermal
Desktop provides full design 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.Thermal Desktop is available for PC as an AutoCAD extension module. Autocad Invertor Suite is available bundled with Thermal Desktop from C&R Technologies. The following
add-on modules are available to expand the capabilities of Thermal
Desktop:
RadCAD® is an optional thermal radiation analysis module for high temperature
and/or vacuum applications.
FloCAD® adds the capability of modeling flow circuits, including fans
and convective heat transfer, attached directly to the surfaces
and solids.
Thermal mapping tools to map temperatures back to NASTRAN, FEMAP, ANSYS or I-deas
Boundary Condition mapping of time- and temperature-dependent heat fluxes from CFD results to Thermal Desktop
Traditional
finite element functions such as showing free edges, merging coincident
nodes, hiding interior solid faces, and surface coating capabilities
Conductors
from a single node to multiple surfaces has been added to facilitate
convection modeling
Network Element Logic
64-bit calculations and multi-processor support
Tools to
facilitate making movies (avi files) for post processing and viewing
the spacecraft in orbit
Extensive
user comment capabilities for model documentation
Built in
natural convection correlations
CAD
Model Building Technology
Snap on model
building
Drag and
Drop model editing
Wireframe,
hidden, and rendered views
Boolean Surfaces
Revolved
Surfaces
Extruded
Surfaces
Mirrored
Surfaces
Scaling
Layer Management
Multiple
independent port views
User defined
light sources
Import
and Export Capabilities
TRASYS import
and export
Nevada import
IDEAS FE and FD import
FEMAP import
NASTRAN import
ANSYS import
NASTRAN and
ANSYS temperature mapping export
NASTRAN mesh export
TSS import
and export
IGES (only
with Autocad Inventor)
STEP (only
with Autocad Mechanical or Inventor)
STEP-204
(only
with Autocad Mechanical or Inventor)
STEP-209
import and export
STEP-TAS import and export
Iceboard
import for printed circuit board design
SAT/ACIS import
Thermal
Desktop Version 5.3
The following
capabilities have been added or expanded:
General:
AutoCAD® 2010 compatibility.
A parabolic trough Thermal Desktop surface has been added.
A new and improved EZXY plotter is used for X-Y plots of data vs. time.
Register names in SINDA/FLUINT can now be 32 characters long. This means that symbol names can be 32 characters long even if the symbol is used to create a register. This also affects the heater append strings which were previously limited to 6 characters; they are now limited to 30 characters.
Measures feature allows thermocouple devices to be added. Thermocouples interpolate the temperature of an object based on the relative location to nodes.
Three commands have been added to Thermal > Utilities menu: toggle undo recording; save SINDA/FLUINT work directory; and search for text.
Symbols, Case Sets, Orbits, Logic Objects, property aliases, analysis groups, and submodels (with comments) can now be imported directly from a Thermal Desktop DWG file without first being explicitly exported.
Model Browser has been enhanced with: list by non-graphical items (e.g. - case sets, orbits, logic objects, optical properties and thermophysical properties), layers, and measures; a repositionable field separator; indications for disabled objects and network element logic; conductor and logic submodel names for subordinate items; symbol group names in list by symbols; contactor and TEC From and To areas; and rightclick contextual menus.
Case Set Manager has been enhanced with: tree-based Case Set groups; drag-and-drop capability for reorganization; and right-click contextual menus.
Symbol manager now has Find command to help locate symbols.
Logic Manager has been enhanced with: tree-based organization with groups; drag-and-drop functionality; equations of motion; and time-step limits for array interpolation to avoid overstepping array points.
Symbol usage is now checked for usage consistency. The user will be notified if symbols are used in fields or expression editors that have different units.
Thermal Desktop:
Thermal submodel names up to 32 characters are now allowed. Many forms have changed to account for this. Submodel definition allows comments.
Thermophysical properties manager has been enhanced with: resizable columns; sorting by material name or property value; and interpolation/extrapolation of temperature dependent properties to room temperature.
Save files can be queried for: minimum and maximum temperatures and register values; heater performance; heat flow between user-specified sets of nodes; sink temperatures and corresponding conductors for subsets of nodes. Save file data can be written to text through the post processing menu.
User-defined nodes can be provided a mass or a volume when material option is chosen.
Heater power can be input as a flux.
Warnings are provided when contactor From area is greater than the To area. This usually indicates a problem. Contactor form allows quick switching of From and To sets.
NASTRAN importer has been expanded to import CTRIA6, CTRIA6*, CQUAD8, and CQUAD8* elements as well as QVOL boundary conditions.
Solid-solid fusion capability has been added.
User has been provided more control over contactor restarts.
GLOBAL logic designator has been added to SINDA. The GLOBAL logic is called regardless of built submodels and is used as default for output calls.
RadCAD:
Optical properties manager has been enhanced with: resizable columns; sorting by material name or property value; and interpolation/extrapolation of temperature dependent properties to room temperature.
Free molecular heating has been enhanced to reference basic and Keplerian orbits with tracking and velocity vector calculation.
Heating rates can be computed using albedo specified as a function of latitude and longitude. The calculations use a rotating planet based on the sidereal period.
Heating rates can be computed using planetshine specified as function of latitude and longitude. The planet is not rotated with time for these calculations. The data may be input as a temperature or a flux, and may be input relative to the planet’s latitude and longitude coordinate system, or a coordinate system constructed about the sub-solar point.
Diffuse Sky Solar and Diffuse Sky IR sources have been added to the Planetary heating environment.
Latitude and longitude dependent albedo and planetshine data can be displayed in color on the planet when in orbit mode. An orbit data color bar is displayed, and may be edited similarly to other post processing color bars.
Output and case set names can be added to RadCAD dataset name.
An optical property summary has been added to the *.k and *.hra files.
FloCAD:
Fluid submodel names up to 32 characters are now allowed. Many forms have changed to account for this.
FloCAD MACRO algorithm has been improved to work with SINDA/FLUINT improvements.
Twin ties are now supported.
Pipes have been improved to support: twin lumps and twin ties; changes to subdivisions in multi-edit mode; specification of length subdivision using a symbol; and two materials in the pipe wall (divided radially).
Friction factors can be augmented from heat transfer and heat transfer multipliers can be based on friction, curves and entrances.
Minimum System Requirements
XP Pro (SP2 or newer), Vista Pro or Home, Windows 7
AutoCAD 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, or 2010
64 Bit Versions: AutoCAD 2008, 2009, or 2010
Memory: 1 GB
Minimum for XP, 2 GB for Vista or Windows 7
Display resolution:
1024x768 minimum, 1280x1024 or finer recommended