ANSYS Icepak 4.4:  Unparalleled Speed and Design Automation Capabilities

Icepak 4.4 brings you advanced model building capabilities including enhanced direct representation of CAD geometries coupled with one of the fastest and most accurate solver engines -FLUENT 6.3. In addition, Icepak 4.4 brings many features, including enhanced trace and via modeling of printed circuit boards (PCB) and package substrates, which are designed to reduce the time and effort required to model today's complex electronics components and systems.

The new ability to generate a direct representation of a CAD geometry has allowed Icepak to handle increasingly complex geometries, provide more flexibility and function with a higher degree of automation. In this version, Icepak's Hex-Dominant meshing technology, which provides fast and optimal meshing of CAD geometries, is further enhanced to handle even the most complicated of shapes. Icepak 4.4 introduces new techniques, such as mesh smoothing and mesh surface recovery, to create body-fitted meshes for complex CAD geometries.

Icepak 4.4 also introduces enhanced import and modeling of trace and via details from the MCM/BRD and Gerber files of PCBs and package substrate layouts. Icepak 4.4 accurately models the effects of traces and vias on PCBs and package substrates by automatically generating thermal conductivity distributions based on local trace and via densities and their properties. This allows you to accurately account for the effect of traces and vias on the thermal performance of PCBs and packages.

In addition, Icepak 4.4 is capable of exploiting the periodicity in a domain to vastly reduce the model size, which leads to a reduced computational cost. This version also offers complete flexibility in creating parametric design trials, parameters and reports, as well as, faster pre-processing and solution, improved turbulence modeling capabilities, enhanced libraries including thermo-electric cooler modules and enhanced macros.

See for yourself why Icepak 4.4 helps you to design better and faster with one of the fastest and most accurate solver engines -FLUENT, and unlimited technical support to ensure your success.

ANSYS Icepak Features

ANSYS Icepak is a fully interactive, object-based, thermal management software tool. The Icepak design environment allows engineers to reduce design costs and reduce the time-to-market of high-performance electronic systems.
 
Icepak offers advanced CAD geometry handling for seamless integration with other mechanical engineering CAD tools and EDA software. Icepak uses the ANSYS solver engine, FLUENT, to provide complete flexibility in modeling complex geometries on unstructured mesh. FLUENT's sophisticated multigrid solver and segregated solution algorithm make Icepak calculations robust and fast.

Icepak provides features that are not available in other analysis packages, including accurate modeling of non-rectangular devices, direct representation of CAD geometries, contact resistance modeling, periodic boundaries, anisotropic conductivity, non-linear fan curves, detailed trace and via modeling, lumped-parameter heat sink devices, external heat exchangers, and design optimization.

Explore the Features in ANSYS Icepak 4.4:

• Model Building Features
• Automatic Mesh Generation Features
• Comprehensive Modeling Capabilities
• Advanced Physical Models
• Boundary Conditions for Flexible Model Building
• Solver Attributes
• Visualization and Reporting
• Miscellaneous
• Online Help and Documentation
• Supported Hardware

Model Building Features:

Icepak's mouse-driven selection, placement, and sizing of predefined objects makes model building fast and easy. Complex geometries can be represented without approximations.

• Object-based model building with predefined objects, including cabinets, blocks, fans, Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) and racks, vents, openings, plates, walls, ducts, sources, resistances, and compact heatsinks
• Comprehensive object shapes, including rectangular blocks, cylinders, ellipsoids, elliptical cylinders, concentric cylinders, prisms of polygonal cross-section, prisms of varying cross-section, and ducts of arbitrary cross-section
• Advanced objects
  • Heatsinks - both detailed and compact model representations are available
  • Blower object
• Rectangular or circular 3D/2D fans with hubs, guards, and power specifications; ability to dial in operating and nominal RPM and fan curve changes automatically
• Polygonal and circular shapes allowed for fans, vents, resistances, plates, openings, and network objects
• 2D and 3D CAD shapes to represent surface and solid CAD geometry are possible
• Library functions that allow you to store or retrieve groups of objects in a parts library
• Inclined rectangular plates, fans, vents, openings, and resistances
• "ModelManager": A graphical "explorer-tree-style" model management tool that allows you to quickly create, edit, and manage objects, assemblies, libraries, projects, configurations & settings
• Mouse-driven interactive GUI controls, including:
  • Mouse or keyboard control of placement, movement, and sizing of objects
  • Ruler option to guide in sizing/resizing of objects
  • 3D mouse-based view manipulation with dynamic rotation, translation, and zoom
  • Undo/redo functions
  • Active/inactive option for all objects
  • Error and tolerance checking
  • Flexible/Customizable units for all input fields
  • ModelManager entities
  • Advanced objects specification for heatsinks, IC packages, and fans
  • Graphical alignment tools
• Optimization and parameterization capabilities, including
  • Efficient gradient-based design optimization module
  • Parameterized geometry and boundary conditions
  • Parameterized boolean control capability
• new! Ability to setup user-defined trials and parameters is available
  • Ability to setup a variety of post processing functions for optimization, reporting and plotting purposes
  • Ability to run without re-creation of solver input files when geometry variables do not change parametrically
• Geometry inputs using local coordinates
• new! Updated material property database
• new! Updated object libraries including Thermo-Electric Cooler modules from Melcor
• Geometry import from MCAD/ECAD:
  • IcePro: A direct Pro/ENGINEER to Icepak interface
  • IGES import feature
  • STEP import feature
  • IDF wizard to import EDA PCB layout information
  • new! MCM/BRD import feature for trace and via import
  • new! Gerber file import feature  for trace and via import
• Capability to import and export model geometry information to spreadsheets
• Comprehensive model summaries in HTML format
• Capability to setup user-defined macros

Automatic Mesh Generation Features:

• Icepak provides a full range of meshing options:
  • Automatic unstructured body conforming
  • Automatic structured Cartesian meshing for convenient analysis of models with predominantly rectangular geometric shapes
  • Automatic non-conformal (for unstructured and structured) to mesh regions of the model separately, simplify meshing, and reduce the cell count, thereby increasing the speed of solutions
  • Embedded non-conformal meshing that allows assemblies to be embedded in other assemblies and then meshed individually
  • Automatic hex-dominant mesher (HDM) for fast and accurate meshing of CAD geometries
  • Automatic tetra mesher to accommodate the very difficult geometric shapes
  • Automatic mixed non-conformal meshing to mesh regions of the model individually with different mesh types to efficiently handle presence of complicated geometries
• Icepak's fully-automatic unstructured mesh generation lets you model complex geometries with ease.
• Fully automatic, unstructured mesh generation for true geometry representation (no stairstepped approximations)
• Hexahedra, tetrahedra, pentahedra, prisms, and mixed element mesh types for high quality mesh on complex objects
• Coarse mesh generation option for first-cut analysis
• Full user control of meshing parameters and mesh deployment
• Intuitive mesh viewing tools that facilitate review of mesh quality

Comprehensive Modeling Capabilities:

• Forced, natural, and mixed convection heat transfer modes; conduction in solids; conjugate heat transfer between solid and fluid regions
• Surface-to-surface radiation heat transfer, with automatic view-factor calculation
• new! Discrete-ordinates radiation heat transfer with control of angular discretization and frequency of computation
• Laminar or turbulent flows
• Ability to model a pre-defined region as laminar when the rest of the modeling region is turbulent
• Steady-state or transient analyses
• Volumetric resistances and sources for velocity and energy

Advanced Physical Models:

• Icepak's depth in physical models ensures that you can include the flow and heat transfer physics that are important to your process, with the confidence that predictions will be accurate and dependable.
• Choice of mixing-length or two-equation k-epsilon turbulence models
• RNG turbulence model is available
• new! Realizable k-epsilon turbulence model is available
• new! Enhanced models for all three two-equation turbulence models are available
• Input for full anisotropic conductivity in solids
• Temperature-dependent material properties
• Contact resistance modeling
• Non-isotropic volumetric flow resistance modeling, with non-isotropic resistance proportional to velocity (linear and/or quadratic)
• Internal heat generation in volumetric flow resistances
• Non-linear fan curves for realistic fan modeling
• Radiation view factor computation models - two methods are available: (1) Improved hemicube method (2) Adaptive method
• Lumped-parameter models for fans, resistances, and vents
• Robust shell conduction model - accounts for planar/lateral conduction effects in zero-thickness plates; available also for cylindrical shells
• Resistance network model - can be used to model IC packages, once characterized in terms of known resistance networks
• CFD solution intimately coupled with RC network modeling:
  • RC network model can be used to model transient behavior of IC packages or other systems
  • Junction power can be made transient
• Network implementations to model external heat exchangers coupled to CFD calculations; users specify mass flow rate through the heat exchanger and overall heat transfer coefficients
• Ideal gas law available

Boundary Conditions for Flexible Model Building:

• new! Wall/Surface boundaries with options for specification of heat flux, temperature, convective heat transfer coefficient, radiation, symmetry and periodic conditions
• Openings and vents with options for specification of inlet/exit velocity, mass flow rate, exit static pressure, inlet total pressure, inlet temperature, and turbulence parameters
• Vents and resistances have an automatic loss coefficient calculation based on free area ratio
• Fans, with options for specified mass flow rate or fan performance curve
• Rotational speed can be specified for cylindrical/circular objects
• Recirculating boundary conditions, for external heat exchanger simulation
• Planar heat exchanger for external heat exchanges
• Network objects for modeling heat exchangers
• Time-dependent and enhanced temperature-dependent sources
• Time-varying ambient temperature input
• Profiles of velocity, temperature, heat flux/heat transfer coefficients can be specified on openings and walls
• Automatic enhanced correlation-based heat transfer coefficient boundary conditions can be specified based on flow parameters
• Pressure boundaries can be a function of time
• Electric current can be a function of time while specifying joule heating parameters
• Variable time-stepping for transient problems - any desired time step variation can be specified; this is useful for problems where changes of interest occur over very small time intervals

Solver Attributes:

new! Icepak's uses the state-of-the-art finite volume solver found in FLUENT 6.3. Robust, fast, and accurate, Icepak uses a segregated solution algorithm with a sophisticated multigrid solver to reduce computational time.

• State-of-the-art fluid flow and heat transfer solver for complex geometries
• Choice of first-order upwinding, for first-cut solutions, or a higher-order scheme for improved accuracy
• Automatic adjustment of solver underrelaxation, for robust and fast convergence
• Parallel solver for multiprocessor machines - solver speedup depends on the size of the problem and the number of processors
• Parallel solver for networked machines, NT or UNIX is available
• Batch queuing capability to spawn off multiple solution trials concurrently to multiple computers
• Grid to grid interpolation for restart is available
• Automatic setting to decouple the flow and energy solution to reduce the time to convergence (by over 30%) in forced convection flows

Visualization and Reporting:

Icepak includes a full-function 3D object-based postprocessor, so you can interpret results with ease. Customized reports and plots help you identify and compare trends during parametric analysis of design options.

• Fully integrated, interactive, object-based visualization with:
  • Three-dimensional modeling
  • Dynamic mouse-based view manipulation (rotation, translation, zoom)
  • View selection and resetting options
  • Hidden line/surface removal
  • On/off toggling of object visualization
  • Mouse-driven cut-plane determination
  • Dynamic movement of cut-planes through the domain
  • Viewing planes that are arbitrary planar surfaces in the domain
• Visualization of velocity vectors, contours, particle traces, or mesh on object faces, cut planes, and iso-surfaces
• new! Visualization of orthotropic thermal conductivity contours (kx, ky, kz) of PC Boards and package substrates is available
• Point probes and XY plotting for data reporting
• Mouse probe for data probing on any post-processing object
• Point summary tables
• Contours of velocity components, speed, temperature, pressure, heat flux, heat transfer coefficient, flow rate, turbulence parameters, vorticity and many more quantities
• Velocity vectors - color coded by temperature, velocity magnitude, pressure, or other solved/ derived quantities
• Animation for viewing of particle and dye traces
• Animation of vectors and contours in transient analyses
• Reporting to user-specified ASCII files of all solved quantities and derived quantities (heat flux, mass flow rate, heat transfer coefficient, etc.) on all objects, parts of objects, and user-specified regions of the domain
• Time history of solution variables at any point in the model
• Graphical monitoring of convergence history during the solution process
• Additional convergence monitoring tool - point monitors for solved variables to monitor solution convergence
• Direct graphics output to printers and/or to user-specified files; hard copy options include color or monochrome postscript, PPM, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, and RGB file formats
• Create animations directly from Icepak by writing out data MPEG and AVI formats
• Animation capability to write out MPEG movies and animated GIFs
• Seamless transfer of data between Windows NT and UNIX
• Single point object that can be used as a monitor point, post-processing object or for point reports
• Ability to report fan and blower operating points
• Autotherm users can export heat transfer coefficients and temperature for use in Autotherm.
• Data can also be exported to NASTRAN, PATRAN, and IDEAS Universal file formats.
• Data can be saved in point format on all postprocessing objects.

Miscellaneous

• Ability to remap mouse-button preferences
• 3D objects (e.g. block) can be converted to 2D objects (plate) and vice versa
• Automatic save interval can be specified
• View time grid and overlay power variations with time on the time grid

Online Help and Documentation:

• Context-sensitive online help for all panels/menus
• Tool tips available for all functional menus
• Tutorial manual, with validation examples
• Training manual

Supported Hardware:

• UNIX workstations and PCs using Windows/NT

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