Workshop 06

Electronics Cooling
14. 5 Release

Introduction to ANSYS
CFD Professional
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

December 12, 2013

Release 14.5

Introduction
This workshop models the heat dissipation from a hot electronics
component fitted to a printed circuit board (PCB) via a finned
heat sink. The PCB is fitted into a casing, which is open at the top
and bottom.

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
2

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Loading Mesh (Workbench)

Open a new Workbench project and save it
as HeatSink.wbpj
Look in the Component Systems section of
the toolbox and drag a CFX system on to the
Project Schematic
Double-click Setup to start CFX-Pre
In CFX-Pre, right-click Mesh and select Import
Mesh > ANSYS Meshing
Select HeatSink.cmdb
(workshop_input_files\WS_08_Electronics
Cooling) and click Open

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
3

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Options
In the tree expand Case Options, double-click
General and ensure that Automatic Default
Domains is switched on and Automatic
Default Interfaces is active
Set the Interface Method to One Per Domain
Pair
Click OK

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
4

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Summary
Release 14.5

Fluid Domains
First add a domain for the fluid region.
Right-click on Flow Analysis 1 and insert a new domain
named Fluid
Set the Location to Fluid
Set the Material to Air at 25 C
Click the Fluid Models tab
Set the heat transfer option to Thermal Energy and
turbulence option to k-Epsilon
Click OK

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
5

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Creating Materials
CFX contains a library of many materials, but for this case we will create user materials
for the component and Printed Circuit Board (PCB).

In the tree right-click on Materials and select

Insert > Material. Name it ComponentMat

Define the material as a Pure Substance in the
Material Group called CHT Solids
Enable Thermodynamic State and select Solid
It can then be used in a solid domain
Click the Material Properties tab and set Density
to 1120 [kg m^-3]
Select Specific Heat Capacity and set it to 1400
[J kg^-1 K^-1]
Expand Transport Properties and set Thermal
Conductivity to 10 [W m^-1 K^-1]
Click OK
Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
6

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Creating Materials
Repeat the material creation steps on the previous page to
make a new solid material, named PCBMat
Density = 1250 [kg m^-3]
Specific Heat Capacity = 1300 [J kg^-1 K^-1]
Thermal Conductivity = 0.35 [W m^-1 K^-1]

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
7

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Solid Domains
Insert a new domain called HeatSink
Set the Location to HeatSink
Set the Domain Type to Solid Domain with the Material set to Aluminium
Click OK to create the domain

Note that an interface between the two domains is automatically created

Repeat the above steps to create a solid domain called Component located at IC
using the Material ComponentMat
Create a further solid domain called PCB located at PCB using the Material
PCBMat

You may see some red physics warnings indicating an update to conditions is required.
These messages will go away when the Wall boundaries are created later on and can be
ignored for now.
When all 4 domains are created the Default Domain will automatically be removed from
the tree. Separate interfaces between each domain will have been automatically
created, rather than combined into a single interface
Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
8

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Energy Source
The component is generating 75 W of heat, which must be added to the simulation. To
add this energy source in CFX, a subdomain must be created

Insert > Subdomain > in the domain,

Component
Set Name to Chip

Set Location to IC, so that the subdomain

occupies the whole of the domain called
Component

Go to the Sources tab and check the

Sources box
Click the Energy box
Set the Option to Total Source and enter a
Total Source of 75 [kg m^2 s^-3]
Click OK
Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
9

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Summary
Release 14.5

Boundary Conditions
For this case all of the heat will be extracted by the air passing over the heat exchanger. So all solid
walls will be defined using adiabatic settings. Within the simulation heat can be transferred
between all of the solid and fluid domains because interfaces have been automatically created.

Right-click on the domain called Fluid and insert a new boundary called
Walls and set the Boundary Type to Wall
Set the Location to Wall
Switch to the Boundary Details tab and check that Heat Transfer is set to
Adiabatic
Click OK
In the PCB domain rename PCB Default to PCBwalls and check that Heat
Transfer is set to Adiabatic

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
10

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Boundary Conditions
The flow of air cooling the component will be driven by forced convection. A fan will draw air
through the upper boundary at a rate of 5 m3 min-1. This will be implemented as a mass flow outlet
using an expression. Flow into the domain will be through an opening boundary on the lower face.
The steps below explain how to set the inflow boundary.

In the Fluid domain insert a new boundary called Inlet

On the Basic Settings tab change the Boundary Type to Opening and set the
Location to Open1
In the Boundary Details tab set the Mass and Momentum option to Opening
Pres. and Dirn with a relative pressure of 0 [Pa]
Set Heat Transfer to Opening Temperature, entering a temperature of 45 [C]
Click OK
The Opening Pressure and Opening Temperature options set Total values when flow is
entering the domain and Static values when flow is leaving.
The use of Total values for inflow in effect represents the case in which the flow outside
the domain is accelerated from rest before entry.
Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
11

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Boundary Conditions
For the outlet boundary representing the fan, we need to convert the known volumetric flow rate
(5 m3 min-1) into a mass flow.

In the Fluid domain rename the boundary, Fluid Default, to Fan and open it for
editing
On the Basic Settings tab change the Boundary Type to Outlet
In the Boundary Details tab set the Mass and Momentum option to Mass Flow
Rate

For the mass flow rate provide the expression 5 [m^3 min^-1]*1.185 [kg m^-3].
The density of Air at 25 C is 1.185 kg m-3.
Click OK

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
12

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Solver Control
From the tree right-click Solver Control and
select Edit
Increase the Max. Iterations to 500

Change the Fluid Timescale Control set to

Physical Timescale and set the value to 1 [s]
Leave Solid Timescale set to Auto Timescale
Note that solid regions will use a much larger
timescale than fluid regions because only the
energy equation is being calculated within the
solid

Reduce the Residual Target to 1e-6

Click OK

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
13

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Output Control
We are interested in the temperature
reached in the Component and so will create
a monitor to track the maximum value

From the tree right-click Output Control and

select Edit
Select the Monitor tab and Check the
Monitor Objects box

Click the New icon and name the monitor

MaxTempComponent
Set Option to Expression and enter the
expression
maxVal(Temperature)@Component

Click OK
Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
14

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Solving the Simulation

Select File > Close CFX-Pre and Save the Project
In the Project Schematic, right-click on Solution and
select Update
While the solver is running right-click on Solution
again and select Display Monitors to check on
progress
It takes about 100 iterations for the monitor
MaxTempComponent to level out. To save time,
stop the run by going to the Project Schematic,
right-clicking on the Solution cell and selecting
Interrupt Update.
To view a completed run, drag and drop into the
Project Schematic the file called CFX_001.res from
the folder results. Then right-click on the Solution
cell of the new system (B) and select Display
Monitors
Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
15

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Opening CFD-Post
In the Project Schematic double-click on the Results cell
B3, or right-click and choose Edit, to open the
completed results in CFD-Post
The results for a simulation
with a higher ventilation rate
of 7.5 m3 min-1 are also
available in the results
folder. In CFD-Post we can
compare the two runs.
Load the second results file by
selecting File > Load Results...
and select CFX_002.res. When
CFD-Post is run from
Workbench, the option Keep
current cases loaded is active
Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
16

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Temperature
Temperature is a key variable for any electronics cooling application. So we will display it in
several locations, such as within the flow, on the surfaces of the solid region and by extracting the
maximum temperature within the component. When these plots are created they appear in the
User Locations and Plots section of the tree.

Click on

to synchronise the cameras

Create a YZ plane (Location > Plane). Name it

Centre, set X to 0 [m] and colour it according to
Temperature
Create a contour plot (Insert > Contour) . Use
the solid sides of the fluid-solid interfaces as
the location (use the icon and Ctrl key to
select multiple locations from both
configurations. Refer to the regions in the
Outline Tree to check which side is which). Set
the Variable to Temperature and Range to
Global

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
17

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Temperature
To create a plot of the differences
between the two results, we will
switch on Case Comparison
Doubles click on Case Comparison in
the Outline Tree and in the details
check the box by Case Comparison
Active
The plots are shown on the next
slide. CFX_001, the lower flow rate,
is on the left-hand side.

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
18

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Temperature

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
19

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5

Temperature
In the run set up in this workshop, the maximum
temperature of the Component was monitored. We
will now calculate this value for the two simulations
along with the difference between them

Select the Calculators tab and double click

on Function Calculator ( ). Set the
options to:

Function: maxVal
Location: Component
Case: All Cases
Variable: Temperature

Click Calculate

Introduction
2013 ANSYS, Inc.

Setup
December 12, 2013

Solving
20

Postprocessing

Summary
Release 14.5