Multiresolution Thermal Design/Signature Management Tool for Vehicle Electronics Packages

The overall objective of this project is to develop a multiresolution, hierarchical flow-thermal software design tool for thermal management and designs of vehicle electronics packages, and interface it with TACOMs analysis code, MuSES. The coupled codes will provide a powerful tool for thermal signature analysis of the packages and other electrical and mechanical components for next generation vehicles with conventional or hybrid thermal-electric power systems. The analysis tool will have capability of fully-resolved CFD flow-thermal simulations of complex electronics packages. Innovative use of artificial neural nets will allow reduced-order modeling of various electronics components and subsystems for rapid and accurate system-level analyses. Phase I work will involve adaptation of an existing simulation environment and a GUI for electronic box applications. A set of interfaces with MuSES will be developed using the User-routine capabilities in MuSES. The coupled system will be demonstrated on a specific vehicle problem for thermal-flow as well as thermal signature analysis of the electronics components. The Phase II project will focus on development of a comprehensive, multiresolution GUI, an extensive parts library for electronics components and subsystems; and automated, script-driven procedures for development of ANN-based and other reduced order models of electronics components. The tools will be validated and demonstrated on selected vehicle configurations and in consultation and collaboration with TACOM.