Thermals software suggestions?
Thermals software suggestions?
(OP)
Can anyone recommend a software for designing heat sinks?
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Thermals software suggestions?
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Thermals software suggestions?Thermals software suggestions?(OP)
Can anyone recommend a software for designing heat sinks?
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RE: Thermals software suggestions?
Tunalover
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
TTFN
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
IRstuff: I wouldn't call Fluent's product 'unacceptable' but I am looking for something better along these lines:
1. Fast and easy to use. We are not thermal experts here and only have a need to use the tool occasionally. Fluent's Qfin isn't bad but Heat Sink Designer is a good example of a much better user interface.
2. Helps find off-the-shelf heat sinks
3. Makes it easy to compare various designs
4. Costs less than Qfin
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
It sounds like ICEPAK would be a Ferrari where a Toyota will do. It is a more general-purpose tool tailor to electronic products. The learning curve and price would both be too long for finder1.
finder1-
Hopefully you're not planning on putting non-engineers at the wheel. Every analytical tool has a price to pay in the learning curve. If the tool is too easy to use then I would be leery because it may not provide the flexibility you need. It may even force you to make assumptions you don't wish to make.
Just my $.02
Tunalover
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
An engineering tool is just that - a tool for engineers. It will be used by EEs with some experience in heat sink selection.
You are also correct about the limitations, though I never met a tool that was "too easy". HeatSinkDesigner is limited to natural convection and "parallel flow through plate fins" which covers most of our applications, but not all. They offer a free Flotherm model of any sink their tool can't handle. I intend to test this claim soon.
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
I'm very happy with it so far. The optimizer and catalog search are very slick. I don't the high-end tools can do this.
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
What is unique, I think, about HeatSinkDesigner is the catalog search capability.
ko (www.ecooling.biz)
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
"MacroFlow is very useful for the thermal design of a variety of electronics systems. Because practical electronics cooling systems can be considered as networks of flow paths through components such as screens, filters, fans, ducts, bends, heat sinks, power supplies, and card arrays, MacroFlow based analysis of such systems is very simple and fast in terms of model definition, computation, and examination of results."
Here is the link: http:/
RE: Thermals software suggestions?
I haven't looked into MacroFlow in depth because it's pretty easy to quickly model simple systems on Flotherm CFD (whereas HeatsinkDesigner is faster and does some things that CFD cannot). But for someone who can't afford CFD, the combination of MacroFlow and HeatSinkDesigner might be worth looking into.
RE: Thermals software suggestions?