Note: If you've chosen this project from the New Project window in the app, it's pre-configured with CAD or mesh files, settings, pre-run simulations, visualization filters, and more.
Use this guide to create this case from scratch with a blank project.
This Printed Circuit Board (PCB) has one chip and a circuit board contained within a case. The chip and board are cooled by air flowing through an inlet. Convecting walls release the ambient heat through two outlets on the other side to simulate the thermal effect of the chip on the circuit board.
Project Files
Project Files
Set Up the Simulation
Download the above mesh and settings files (expand Project Files).
Create a new blank project.
Upload the mesh file.
Upload the settings file. Click the three dot (...) menu at the top of the control panel and select Upload Settings, then select the file from your file browser.
Rename the volumes to make navigating the project easier. Double click on each volume in the Geometry panel and rename them as follows:
Volume 1 > Copper Volume
Volume 2 > Fluid Volume
Volume 3 > Aluminum Volume
Next, we’ll explore the various simulation settings before running the simulation and applying visualizations.
Materials
In the simulation control panel, expand the Materials section. There are three materials:
Standard Air is a fluid material assigned to the Fluid Volume (the outer case). This material is used to simulate air flow through the inlet, across the board, and through the two outlets on the other side of the case.
Copper is a solid material assigned to the Copper Volume (the circuit board).
Aluminum is a solid material assigned to Aluminum Volume (the chip).
Physics
In the Physics section, there are three items:
Fluid Flow:
This project uses the laminar viscous model.
Volume Selection contains the fluid volume. This makes up the outer case (convecting walls), the inlet, two outlets, and a convecting wall between the PCB and the cooling fluid (air).
Boundary Conditions contains the Inlet, Outlet, Wall, and the fluid sides of the two Multiphysics Interfaces. Click through each to explore the assigned surfaces and settings.
Initialization has been changed from the defaults to use a Static Pressure of 100,000 Pa.
Heat Transfer in Solid:
Volume Selection contains the solid volumes. These make up the board and the chip.
Heat Sources contains one source applied to the aluminum volume; a volumetric heat load that represents the total heat created by the chip.
Boundary Conditions contains an Isothermal condition assigned to the surfaces that make up the board and the solid sides of the two Multiphysics Interfaces.
Multiphysics Coupling:
Multiphysics Interface 1 creates an interface between Surface 1 and Surface 16, the copper board and the fluid volume.
Multiphysics Interface 2 creates an interface between Surfaces 17-21 and 22-26, the fluid volume and the aluminum chip.
Run the Simulation
At the top of the control panel, click Run Simulation. You'll be taken to the simulation tab for this run. Once it's finished running, you'll apply visualization filters to view the results.
Create a Slice
Create a slice to visualize the heat distribution throughout the fluid and solid volumes.
At the top of the 3D Viewer, select Temperature (K) from the display dropdown, then select Surface:
In the visualization toolbar at the top of the page, click the Slice icon
, then select Slice.In the properties panel, set the Display options to:
Color By: Temperature (K)
Representation: Surface
Then in the Visualization Input section, set:
Origin: 0.1, 0.1, 0.03
Normal: 1, 0, 0
Click the check button to create the slice.
In the upper-right corner of the 3D Viewer, click on the Temperature color bar.
Click Visible.
Select Discrete, then enter 10 in the Bins box.
Click Done.
Finally, in the Geometry panel, hide the Fluid Volume to view the slice.
