Heat sink causes CFD to fail

[emailforautodeskW8Y7U]

Hello,

I'm trying to simulate a very simple model - a PCB board with a silicon chip and a heat sink. But when I try to mesh, CFD reports an error and closes. I tried simulating each part individually and in different combinations and it looks like it all fails with heat sinks. If I leave the geometry intact and only change heat sink material to a metal, I can run the simulation - so the geometry should be fine, right? I tried using one part heat sink with non-zero base thickness as well two part heat sink (with 0 base thickness of course) - both report an error. What could be wrong? Any ideas?

CFD: 2019.1

OS: WINDOWS 10

[karol.suchon]

Hello.

The Heat Sink is a special kind of material. This a simplification that could be only applied in a basic shape like a cuboid. I think that could be a problem.

You could find more information about this here:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/cfd/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/SimCFD-Us...

If You still have a problem, just let me know, and attach the CFD model.

Best regards,

Karol Suchoń

Autodesk Support Specialist

[emailforautodeskW8Y7U]

Well, my geometry is very simple and I replaced the heat sink with a cuboid (or just a simple box). I'm not sure what files to send so I'm sending a zipped directory of a CFD study and also an assembly file for Inventor 2019 for geometry.

Just to be sure, there is a PCB board and on top of it there are silicon chips and then 2 part heat sink with aluminium base and a standard heat sink material (MC20) but with adjusted parameters for fins. I was already following that tutorial you mentioned and all the heat sink parameters are taken from there.

If it makes a difference, I'm using a free trial of CFD now. I have a student licensed Inventor 2019 PRO but as I understand it there is no free CFD for students right now. But I can run CFD simulations without heat sinks so I don't think this should be a problem.

[karol.suchon]

Hello, unfortunately, the files which You send are not complete.

The zip file does not contain a support file, also the Inventor assembly file without parts does not give me any information.

Please create a sharable file in Autodesk CFD like in the link.

Probably You will need to zip the file again.

Br,

Karol Suchoń

[emailforautodeskW8Y7U]

Here, I think this should be enough for you to open it on your PC.

[karol.suchon · Accepted solution]

Hello!

I checked the case description once again.

In version 2019.1 that error appears and probably You cannot do it anything more than updating the software to version 2019.2  or decrease to pure version 2019. I recommend the update, if You decrease the version You are not able to open the files.

BR
Karol