AEDT Icepak and Electronics Cooling Analysis: Part 1

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Title: AEDT Icepak and Electronics Cooling Analysis: Part 1 Hello, welcome to an OZEN engineering video where we talk about ANSYS simulation tools. In this blog, I'm going to be talking about ANSYS Electronics Desktop i-SPAC.

This is the latest version of i-SPAC that is integrated along with other ANSYS electromagnetic solvers such as HFSS, Q3D, etc. And we're going to, in this particular video, look at just that i-SPAC and we're going to build an electronics cooling model almost from scratch.

And I'm going to show as much as possible details about the ADT i-SPAC GUI, model building, solver, and post-processing. So, once our ADT window is open, what we want to do is go to Project and we want to insert an i-SPAC design.

So now, we're going to go to the Project tab and we want to insert an i-SPAC design. We have our kind of canvas area here where we're going to put together the model. And here we have the model tree, etc. On the right-hand side, we have our component libraries.

As you know, Icepack has lots of readily available electronics components, fans, packages, TECs, you know, readily built heat sinks, a big fan database, which you can, you know, just take from the library and drop into this area to use in our model.

But, you know, let's start with our project manager window. And whenever we select an option here, its properties are going to show up in the window below. So what you notice is a lot of, you know, sub-windows. So you can see the sub-windows in the AEDT window.

Here under messages, you know, this is like a log. If there are any problems, warnings, it's going to appear here. And then we can track the progress here. For example, you know, meshing takes some time.

So here, you know, you can track, you know, how it's meshing or is it, you know, frozen, if there's a problem. So, what I would like to do is, you know, first just give a nice, nice name to our project.

I just say "electronics cooling." And here, you know, let's just, you know, rename this as well. "Electronics cooling." So, one of the first things that we're going to do is let's set model units. So under the Draw tab, so each of these, you know, we'll change the menu option.

So, you know, there are a lot of hidden features. So let's select Draw. Under here, let's select our units as millimeters, which is already default. Next step is importing our model unit. So we're going to go to our CAD model. So we're going to go to Modeler, select Import.

And we have this multitude of file types that, you know, ANSYS Icepack can read. So I will go to my documents, then ANSYS Icepack. And then pick this step file here. So now what we see on the screen are some of the basic components, like our DDRs. We have our AGP, which generates a lot of heat.

So we're going to place a heat sink over it. There's a bridge component here. And some small and large memories. And we're going to add some intake fans. We're going to define a cabinet around it as well.

So now, if you'll notice, under Model, we have a group called Workshop 01. And there, under Solids, we have these components. So I can go ahead and, you know, kind of pick them one by one. And see what each one is. And make sure everything is right.

And here we can use groups to put, you know, use assemblies, sub-assemblies. And what I want to do is go to Workshop. I want to go to Group. And then we'll do Ungroup. So now, under Solids, you know, we now have the solids and air regions separate.

So, as we spoke about our cabinet, which will be the air volume that surrounds our electronics, we're going to go and check it. So what we want to do is do a Create Region. And go to Properties. When you select Properties, this is essentially going to help you resize this red box.

So what I would like to do is kind of define an appropriate air size around it. So, let's start by doing some X, Y, and Z padding. Or offsets from the domain. So we're going to do an absolute. So let's just do it in this window. We want to do an absolute padding of 10 millimeters.

We're going to do absolute position to have some variety. Just go 25 millimeters. In the Y direction, let's do absolute offset. Zero. And again, absolute offset of zero. For Z, let's pick absolute position. And then absolute offset of 5 millimeters. Okay.

And as you can see, we have a nice cabinet now built around our electronics. So now, next step is building our intake fans. We are using the Modeler tab under Draw. What we want to do is click on this coordinate system. Because we want to draw.

Because we'd like to define a local coordinate system for the center of our fan. And here we can set the origin. This puts us at the point probe function.

I want to hit F 4. And switch where I can enter the data for the center of our new coordinate system with respect to the global coordinate system. Okay. So there's our new coordinate system. And I'm going to change the name to "fan coordinate system." Next step is to add our fan.

So under Electronics cooling on the left side, 3D components. I hit right mouse click. And I want to create a fan object. So ADT makes it really easy. And we can do our fan by following these. So we're going to treat this as a 2D circular fan. It's going to lie in the YZ system.

In the coordinate YZ. And let's have a radius of 10 millimeters. And here, you know, we're just going to use a fixed volumetric flow rate. We're going to pick CFM, cubic feet per meter, with 10. And it's going to bring in ambient temperature. And hit Next. Then we can finish.

So now on the 3D components, we have our intake fan. Now I'd like to add a second fan. And that will have the same features. So I want to copy our existing fan. So I'll click on the object now under the model tree. And I will select this button, which is a duplicate along line.

So let's click on this. And then again, let's hit F 4. And then now, using the same coordinate, we want to shift it in the Y direction by minus 60 millimeters. Once I hit OK. Now I have our second fan. Now let's go ahead and add our heat sink. So similarly, we have our fan.

And let's say, actually, 3D components create heat sink. Which is going to open this new panel. And let's hit Next and start defining our heat sink. The flow through will be in the XY coordinate. We're going to have a 20 millimeter high fan heat sink. And then let's define some base dimensions.

So this is the base of our fan. So it's pretty thin at the height. And now let's define the fins. They'll be extruded. Flow direction is X. Let's have 11 fins. With each fin being 1 millimeter thick. And then we'll have a 10 millimeter thick. And then we'll have a 10 millimeter thick.

And then we'll have a 10 millimeter thick. And we'll keep the materials. And let's finish. So now what you can see is at the relative coordinate system, it did add our 11 fin heat sink. So next step is moving our heat sink. So heat sink is marked within the Draw mode. We want to move it.

We want to be in the F3 mode. What I would like to do is go capture the bottom center surface. So when it turns to a circle, I do a right mouse click. Now I'm in the moving mode. As you can see, I can move it around.

What I'll try to do is I'm going to center it on the AGP and click the center mouse button. And as you can see now, it's placed perfectly on the heat generating element. Next, let's go ahead and start assigning our flow boundary conditions. So for this, we want to go to Air.

And on our Air domain or enclosure, we're going to press F. The button F, which puts us in the face selection mode. And we're going to go pick out the face that's opposite to the fan. And what we want to do is we want to assign a grid. So while I'm here, I'm going to do a right mouse click.

It's going to open up this new window. And I'm going to assign thermal. And then select grid. Here, let's just do a free area ratio of 0.8, meaning 20% is closed. And the resistance type we're going to leave at default as a thin wet. So we can also change the name if we like.

So once you hit OK, now what we'll see is under the Project Manager, under Thermal, now we have a grid. And you can check it, make sure it's correct by clicking here. We're going to also mark the remaining walls of the cabinet and assign them as a wall.

And then we're going to apply some heat transfer boundary conditions. If you do not assign any thermal conditions to a wall, or a boundary, it's going to be an adiabatic wall by default. So let's go ahead, start selecting by right mouse click.

The remainder of the points, I'm going to keep my finger on control. So it just keeps adding surfaces. So these four surfaces, now as they're tagged, I'm going to do a right mouse click. Assign thermal. I'm going to do a wall. And it's a stationary wall. So these are all stationary walls.

We're not going to put any thickness. We want to define some cooling heat transfer coefficient there with a value of 10. And hit OK. All right. So next step is to define our thermal networks for the bridge and the AGP packages.

If we zoom into our bridge, what we're going to do is we're going to put an internal node inside our bridge to do a thermal network. And this top surface will be junction to case. And that junction in the middle, will also connect to the board. That will be junction to board.

And then we're going to define RJB and RJC, the thermal resistances. So let's again switch to face mode. We want to pick the face for the bridge. But what we see is the air enclosure getting in the way. So what we want to do is, let's go ahead to Air Region.

And we want to View and Hide in all views. So now we hit the Air. Now we can just go ahead, click on the surface of our bridge. So once this is selected, we can click on B, which will select the back face. And if we hit R. Hit our, have our finger on control. Then we can now select those two faces.

Next step is to define our thermal network. So we go Assign Thermal and select Network. This is going to bring up this new big window.

And we're going to call this one, "channel." And we're going to call this one, "channel." And we're going to call this one, "channel." So let's let's click on our RJC let's do a double click so it's our thermal resistance let's set a value of 3.5 watts and then let's pick our double click on i'm sorry this is three rjb is 3.5 let's go ahead fix this to 1.5 and then we can go ahead click on our double click on our junction and here we want to set the power to one and half watts our mass we can leave the mass unspecified and let's hit okay now we can go ahead hit okay and as you can see can see it has turned into a network.

Next step is replicate this thing on the AGP. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to hide. Hide our heatsink so that we can see our AGP. So I'm going to pick the top face and the bottom face and do the same process again. Okay. We go right mouse click, assign thermal network.

And now let's rename our faces so we don't get lost. Our case, our board, our JC. This will be our junction. Okay. So we're going to assign our junction. And let's start assigning values. Let's start with RJB. This will have four watts. Okay. RJC. Let's do this 1. 2. Hit okay.

Let's define our junction by double clicking. Okay. Let's assign 54 watts. So it's generating a lot of heat. And hit okay. We can maybe also do this instead of network two. Let's call this network AGP so that we can differentiate it and hit okay.

Now let's work with our remainder heat generate heat sources. So what I'm going to do is. I'm going to go to Large Flash. Double click on it. It's going to bring up the properties. But that's not what I want to do. What I really want to do is assign thermal.

This is a thermal block now, which will be generating a fixed heat of 1.25 watts. Okay. So let's go ahead and do that. Okay. Let's go ahead and do that. Okay. Let's go to our Small Flash. Assign Thermal Block. And 0.5 watts. Okay. Okay. So the next step is we want to assign to DDRs.

So let's kind of mark them all so that we don't have to do it many times. Let's do Assign Thermal Block. And for these, we want to assign this one. Just over 1 watt. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And here, I made the mistake. This is the individual value.

Because I marked them all together, I want to put the total value for the 4 DDRs. So I want to make it 4. 5. So here, now we can see our different blocks of heat dissipation as well. So now I can just plug this in. So this is the 5. 5. Alright. So I'm going to put the 4. 5. Okay.

So I'm going to put the 4. 5. Now we've included all the heat setup. What we want to do is make sure we have the correct materials. I'm going to go to the Board object and I'm going to select, right mouse click, assign material.

So what it has brought out is this wide variety of materials that are available in the iSPEC database. And here what I'm going to do is I'm going to click Add Material so that this is a custom material.

And we're going to do instead of a simple thermal conductivity, we want to do an isotropic thermal conductivity. Which will allow us to put different thermal conductivity values in x, y, and z directions in this order. So we're going to start putting in those numbers.

So the normal in-plane has the same conductivity. But we have... ...no conductivity in the perpendicular direction. Let's also enter our mass and specific heat values. And let's it... ...call this... ...board material. Well... ...we're going to do... ...hit OK. Hit OK.

Now you can see that we have assigned the materials to our board. Next step is to assign ceramic material to all these heat generating components. Mark them. We want to do Assign Material. We want to do Search by Name in the database. And here we see, you know, what came up.

And I want to select ceramic material and hit OK. So now we have our new ceramic materials here. Also... ...I'd like to define some surface material. I double click on AGP. See that it's not defined. And let's just make it steel oxidized surface.

One thing with AGP is because we did replace it with a network. So it should not be solved inside. We want to turn this off. I'm going to hit OK. So if I go to Bridge, similar thing. And I want to not solve inside because it has a network. So DDR.

Let's define our surface material. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Let's see our Board. Double click on it. Let's also make it KP- było... ... .... ... Okay. Here we want to solve. Click OK. Material properties, thermal and flow conditions. Next step is we want to do Solver Settings.

So let's go ahead and start with that. So what I will do is now I'll go to the Simulation tab and here we see the Setup button which I'm going to click and this is going to guide us making a setup. So you know we can name this any way we like. I'd suggest you know using descriptive names.

So for example this is a forced convection case and let's say you know we're not going to do radiation so we just call radiation off maybe. So the name is descriptive about this particular solution. We will now go ahead and start with the Solver Settings.

So let's go ahead and start with the Solver Settings. So we want to do Maximum 500 Iterations. We want to Solve for Temperature and Flow. This is going to be a Turbulent Flow because the fan is putting in swirling complicated turbulent flow.

We're going to have Radiation Model Off and typically you know we want to solve whenever possible Flow and Energy Equations Sequentially. What this will do is first solve the flow flow. So we want to solve for temperature and flow. We want to solve for temperature and flow.

We want to solve for temperature and flow. We want to solve for fields. Also get a fairly convirt solution and then toward the energy on just add a couple of iterations, so that we get to a convergence faster.

With turbulent what I forgot to mention is we want to click on Options and here we go from zero equation to two equation models.

So going down the list the turbulence model gets more detailed and more accurate In this particular case, Enhanced Realizable Two Equation Model is suggested due to the swirling fan flow. So I'm going to hit OK. Let's move on to the next tab. So we did General. Now let's do Convergence.

These are default values. Let's push the flow to one more level of one more order of convergence to e2 minus 4. And also energy, you know, let's make it a harder convergence. Make solver work more by tightening these convergence criteria. Next, I'm going to select Solve Settings.

Our Ambient Temperature by default is 20 degrees C. It can be changed. And Initial Conditions, we're just going to put no velocity because it's a little bit too high. So we're going to put no velocity. It's a forced convection case. And we can just live with these defaults here.

But, you know, we want to click on the advanced options. And here we can use the standard under relaxation and discretization schemes. But for temperature, what we want to get better convergence is we want to stabilize it using BC. So we can use it. So I'm going to use a method called G-STEP method.

Right? So I'm going to hit OK here. And we can change the, you know, we can look at the defaults here. All right. So let's hit OK. Now what you will notice is under Analysis, we can see our setup. for this particular solution. And we could have multiple analysis listed here.

Before going to Meshing, Solving, and Post-processing, the final thing we want to do is we want to do a quick check on the Simulation tab. There's the Validate button. Let's click on it. And if there are any glaring errors with the model, it's going to find it and let us know. So that's good.

It checked fine. And we can close this window. The problem setup phase is now complete. So this concludes our video. There's going to be a part two. And there we're going to mesh, solve, and post-process our model. I'm using nasoboost.

And we're going to use a terrain mesh now to define our design and create the gradients. We're going to use the GoSEM Runner project and then make a general import using it. And we're going to use the SQL book of analysis to start with the achievement in sharing a 0004 value.