CFD applied to electronic systems: a review

The application of commercial and noncommercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programs to systems relevant to electronics is reviewed. The following commercial programs are discussed: THEBES, FLOTHERM, FLUENT, FLOTRAN, FIDAP/ICEPAK, CFX 4 (formerly CFDS-FLOW3D), PHOENICS/HOTBOX, and STAR-CD. Notably, of the noncommercial programs, work utilizing a spectral element program originating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is described. General thermofluid capabilities, user friendliness, and other peripheral aspects, such as the modeling of thermal stress/strain and dust transport are assessed. For all comparisons with measurements, agreement was found to be within 30%. No commercial CFD program appeared to be clearly superior for all applications, but FLOTHERM had the most use for realistic cooling design problems