Defining the Setup

Follow these steps to define the physics, units, and solver settings for an electronics cooling simulation.

If you want to import ODB++ files that contain PCB design information, you must download an ODB++ extraction package from the Support Center portal and add the package path to the Electronics Cooling Toolset environment settings. Additionally, the ODB++ reader requires that you run Simcenter STAR-CCM+ on one of the following operating systems:
Operating System Version
Windows 10 Pro & Enterprise (64 bit)
Windows Server 2016 Standard (64 bit)
Windows Server 2019 Standard (64 bit)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux V7 (updates 5-8) (64 bit)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Enterprise server & Desktop V12 (updates 3-4) (64 bit)
To launch the Electronics Cooling Toolset:
  1. Click (Launch Electronics Cooling App).
    The Electronics Cooling Toolset appears in a separate tab within Simcenter STAR-CCM+. An empty Electronics Cooling scene opens for visualization.
To define the physics of your electronics cooling simulation:
  1. Right-click the Setup > Physics node and select Edit.
  2. In the Edit dialog, set:
    • Ambient Conditions
    • Solution Physics
    See Setup Reference—Physics.
  3. In the Materials group box, define the various solid, gas, and liquid materials that are present within your electronics device, see Defining Materials.
  4. Click Close.
To define the preferred units for your electronics cooling simulation:
  1. Right-click the Setup > Units node and select Edit.
    The Edit dialog displays the default engineering units for the various fundamental and derived dimensions.
  2. Set the units to suit your simulation. See Setup Reference—Units.
  3. Click Close.
To define the solver settings for your electronics cooling simulation:
  1. Right-click the Setup > Solver node and select Edit.
  2. In the Edit dialog, set the following Solver Settings:
    • Stopping Criteria
    • Segregated Flow Under-Relaxation Factors
    • Segregated Energy Under-Relaxation Factors
    See Setup Reference—Solver.
  3. Click Close.
To set up the environment for the import of ODB++ files:
  1. Download the ODB++ Extraction Package.
  2. In the Electronics Cooling Toolset, right-click the Setup > Environment node and select Edit.
  3. Within the Edit dialog, in the ODB++ Import Software group box, set Install Location to the absolute path of the extracted saflt directory, such as C:\Users\username\Documents (Windows) or /home/Documents (Linux).
  4. Click Close.
    You must set the path to this directory only once—it is stored for the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software version that you are using at the time.
The physics, units, solver, and environment settings are now defined. In the background, the selected conditions and parameters are set in the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ simulation tree.