{"id":32461,"date":"2020-03-05T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/2020\/03\/05\/icepak-in-ansys-electronic-desktop-why-should-you-know-about-it\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T09:12:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T16:12:34","slug":"icepak-in-ansys-electronic-desktop-why-should-you-know-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/2020\/03\/05\/icepak-in-ansys-electronic-desktop-why-should-you-know-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Icepak in Ansys Electronic Desktop \u2013 Why should you know about it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The role of Ansys Electronics Desktop Icepak (hereafter referred to as Icepak, not to be confused with Classic Icepak) is in an interesting place. On the back end, it is a tremendously capable CFD solver through the use of the Ansys Fluent code. On the front end, it is an all-in-one pre and post processor that is streamlined for electronics thermal management, including the explicit simulation and effects of fluid convection. In this regard, Icepak can be thought of as a system level Multiphysics simulation tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the advantages of Icepak is in its interface consistency with the rest of the Electronic Desktop (EDT) products. This not only results in a slick modern appearance but also provides a very familiar environment for the electrical engineers and designers who typically use the other EDT tools. While they may not already be intimately familiar with the physics and setup process for CFD\/thermal simulations, being able to follow a very similar workflow certainly lowers the barrier to entry for accessing useful results. Even if complete adoption by these users is not practical, this same environment can serve as a happy medium for collaboration with thermal and fluids experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1: AEDT Icepak interface. The same ribbon menus, project manager, history tree, and display window as other EDT products.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, beyond these generalities, what does Icepak actually\noffer for an optimized user experience over other tools, and what kinds of\nproblems\/applications are best suited for it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing that comes to mind for both of these\nquestions is a PCB with attached components. In a real-world environment,\nanyone that has looked at the inside of a computer is likely familiar with\nmotherboards covered with all kinds of little chips and capacitors and often\ndominated by a CPU mounted with a heatsink and fan. In most cases, this motherboard\nis enclosed within some kind of box (a computer case) with vents\/filters\/fans\non at least some of the sides to facilitate controlled airflow. This is an\nideal scenario for Icepak. The geometries of the board and its components are typically\nwell represented by rectangular prisms and cylinders, and the thermal\nmanagement of the system is strongly related to the physics of conjugate heat\ntransfer. For the case geometry, it may be more convenient to import this from\na more comprehensive modeler like SpaceClaim and then take advantage of the\ntools built into Icepak to quickly process the important features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 2: A computer case with motherboard imported from SpaceClaim. The front and back have vents\/fans while the side has a rectangular patterned grille.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a CAD model like the one above, we may want to include\nsome additional items like heatsinks, fan models, or simple PCB components.\nIcepak\u2019s geometry tools include some very convenient parameterized functions\nfor quickly constructing and positioning fans and heatsinks, in addition to the\nbasic ability to create and manipulate simple volumes. There are also routines\nfor extracting openings on surface, such as the rectangular vent arrays on the\nfront and back as well as the patterned grille on the side. So, not only can\nyou import detailed CAD from external sources, you can mix, match, and simplify\nit with Icepak\u2019s geometry, which streamlines the entire design and setup\nprocess. For an experienced user, the above model can be prepared for a basic\nsimulation within just a matter of minutes. The resulting configuration with an\nadded heatsink, some RAM, and boundary conditions, could look something like\nthis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 3: The model from Figure 2 after Icepak processing. Boundary conditions for the fans, vents, and grille have been defined. Icepak primitives have also been added in the form of a heatsink and RAM modules.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monitor points can then assigned to surfaces or bodies as\ndesired; chances are that for a simulation like this, temperature within the\nCPU is the most important. Additional temperature points for each RAM module or\nflow measurements for the fans and openings can also be defined. These points\ncan all be tracked as the simulation proceeds to ensure that convergence is\nactually attained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 4: Monitoring chosen solution variables to ensure convergence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this simple system containing a 20 W CPU and 8 RAM\nmodules at 2 W each, quite a few of our components are toasty and potentially\nproblematic from a thermal standpoint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 5: Post-processing with Icepak. Temperature contours are overlaid with flow velocities to better understand the behavior of the system<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the power of a simulation environment in Icepak at our\nfingertips, we can now play around with our design parameters to improve the thermal\nmanagement of this system! Want to see what happens when you block the outlet\nvents? Easy, select and delete them! Want to use a more powerful fan or try a\nnew material for the motherboard or heatsink? Just edit their properties in the\nhistory tree. Want to spin around the board or try changing the number of fins\non the heatsink? Also straightforward, although you will have to remesh the\nmodel. While these are the kinds of things that are certainly possible in other\ntools, they are exceptionally easy to do within an all-in-one interface like\nIcepak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The physics involved in this example are pretty standard:\nsolid body conduction with conjugate heat transfer to a turbulent K-Omega fluid\nmodel. Where Icepak really shines is its ability to integrate with the other\ntools in the EDT environment. While we assumed that the motherboard was nothing\nmore than a solid chunk of FR-4, this board could have been designed and\nsimulated in detail with another tool like HFSS. The board, along with all of\nthe power losses calculated during the HFSS analysis, could have then been\ndirectly imported into the Icepak project. This would allow for each layer to\nbe modeled with its own spatially varying thermal properties according to trace\nlocations as well as a very accurate spatial mapping of heat generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not at all to say that Icepak is limited to these\nkinds of PCB and CCA examples. These just often tend to be convenient to think\nabout and relatively easy to geometrically represent. Using Fluent as the\nsolver provides a lot of flexibility, and there are many more classes of\nproblems that could be benefit from Icepak. On the low frequency side, electric\nmotors are a good example of a problem where electronic and thermal behavior\nare intertwined. As voltage is applied to the windings, currents are induced\nand heat is generated. For larger motors, these currents, and consequently the associated\nthermal losses, can be significant. Maxwell is used to model the electronic\nside for these types of problems, where the results can then be easily brought\ninto an Icepak simulation. I have gone through just such an example\nrotor\/stator\/winding motor assembly model in Maxwell, where I then copied everything\ninto an Iecpak project to simulate the resulting steady temperature profile in\na box of naturally convecting air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 6: An example half-motor that was solved in Maxwell as a magnetostatic problem and then copied over to Icepak for thermal analysis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it is found that better thermal management is needed,\nthen extra features could then be added on the Icepak side as desired, such as\na dedicated heatsink or external fan. Only the components with loads mapped\nover from Maxwell need to remain unmodified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the high frequency side, you may care about the\nperformance of an antenna. HFSS can be used for the electromagnetic side, while\nIcepak can once again be brought in to analyze the thermal behavior. For high powered\nantenna, some components could very easily get hot enough for the material\nproperties to appreciably change and for thermal radiation to become a dominant\nmode of heat transport. A 2-way automatic Icepak coupling is an excellent way\nto model this. Thermal modifiers may be defined for material properties in\nHFSS, and radiation is a supported physics model in Icepak. HFSS and Icepak can\nthen be set up to alternately solve and automatically feed each other new loads\nand boundary conditions until a converged result is attained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What all of this really comes down to is the question: how\neasy is it for the user to set up a model that will produce the information\nthey need? For these kinds of electronics questions, I believe the answer for\nIcepak is \u201cextraordinarily easy\u201d. While functional on its own merit, Icepak\nreally shines when it comes to the ease of coupling thermal management analysis\nwith the EM family of tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The role of Ansys Electronics Desktop Icepak (hereafter referred to as Icepak, not to be confused with Classic Icepak) is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":32462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2323],"tags":[478,2000,2314,1174,2315,2064],"post-podcast":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32461"},{"taxonomy":"post-podcast","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-podcast?post=32461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}