4. Simulation

Thermally, the layout of electronic systems is highly complex. More and more use is being made of numerical simulation software, validated by experiments. These programs are particularly interesting tools, as they attempt, at the design stage, to arrive at the chip temperature and optimize the cooling system. However, their use is far from solving all thermal problems, given the number of components per board, the number of boards per rack, the number of racks per bay and the number of bays per room: even the most powerful computer cannot handle such a problem.

So the problem has to be broken down into several parts. Each part is studied in detail, while the others are schematized: the problem is to find a simple representation that is close to reality and leads to acceptable accuracy.

The detailed study of components is carried out using...