Solving Heat Problems using CFD and Simulation Techniques to Highlight coolingZONE-12 Conference

July 25, 2012 - PRLog -- Engineers attending the coolingZONE-12 International Conference in Cambridge, MA (USA) this August 27-30 will learn how CFD and simulation software can help resolve heat problems in today’s increasingly-warmer electronic devices in ways that are faster to develop and less expensive to build than strictly using repetitive physical testing.

Among the coolingZONE presenters covering this important topic is Chris Aldham, Ph.D, who will discuss Thermal Design of Electronic Systems for Use in Data Centers. Dr. Aldham, a pioneer in the employment of computational fluid dynamics, CFD, will explain how the drive for efficiency and energy savings is also forcing changes in the way data centers are organized. Ideas such as free cooling, aisle containment, increased ambient temperatures and liquid cooling are all being explored. But these approaches may have conflicting demands on the design of the electronics.

Dr. Aldham’s course will describe, compare and contrast some of the upcoming strategies and discuss their impact on IT equipment design. Now at Future Facilities, Dr. Aldham is responsible for 6SigmaET – electronics cooling simulation software which is part of a suite of integrated software products that tackle head-on the challenges of data center lifecycle engineering.  

Also presenting, Ruben Bons, will provide a course on the design of natural convection-cooled systems for electronics and LED lighting. He will examine the approach to simulating natural convection-cooled systems in a CFD program. Particular physical phenomena, their impact on the simulation process, and focused guidelines will be addressed.

Mr. Bons will specifically cover the setup of natural convection simulations, the most efficient modeling of small sealed air pockets, and how radiation affects thermal performance. The background theory, simulation details, and design implications of each topic will be presented. Ruben Bons is the Electronics Sector Manager with CD-adapco, responsible for understanding and addressing the market needs electronics thermal management applications with STAR-CCM+.  

And Dr. Andrew Duggleby will present on the use of computers to go where experiments cannot: massively-parallel LES of turbulent heat transfer. Dr.Duggleby will discuss the current state-of-the-art for both quick simulations and highly-resolved simulations in the context of turbulent heat transfer. For quick simulations, recent advances in not just simulation time, but total CAD to analysis time will be discussed. These include: computer-aided design (CAD) model to mesh time; simulation time; accuracy vs. time trade-offs (models, resolution); and analysis time. For computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer, this typically refers to the steady-state Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) models, but an example will be given for a time-dependent Large Eddy Simulation of a Venturi nozzle, where CAD to analysis was done in less than 24 hours.

For the highly-resolved simulations, analysis techniques to elucidate useful information out of terabytes of data will be discussed, with an example of pin-n heat transfer direct numerical simulation (DNS) where the modes responsible for heat transfer are extracted via Proper Orthogonal De-composition (POD), and then enhanced by endwall contouring resulting in increased convection with minimal drag increase. Dr. Andrew Duggleby is Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University and the Director of the Fluids, Turbulent, and Fundamental Transport Lab (FT2L) at Texas A&M, Mechanical Engineering.

The coolingZONE-12 Thermal Engineering Conference is being held August 27-30,
2012 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge MA, in walking distance to Harvard and MIT. More information and online registration can be found at: http://coolingzone.com/event.php?eventid=12 . Exhibitors should contact John O’Day at joday@coolingzone.com or at 1-508-329-2021.