Mentor Graphics Announces FloVENT v8

By DE Editors

Mentor Graphics Corporation has announced the release of the FloVENT v8 solution with enhancements in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) model creation, solution performance, and results visualization. These enhancements enable design engineers of built environments, data centers, and clean rooms to set up build scenarios and analyze them for proper cooling, heating, contamination control, and ventilation.

The FloVENT software is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) product that predicts 3D airflow, heat transfer, and contamination distribution in buildings of all types and sizes. FloVENT menu system was created for engineers involved in the design and optimization of built environments and HVAC systems. It enables engineers to minimize energy consumption as well as eliminate airflow problems or hazards early in the design process before building construction or refurbishment begins.

Enhancements in the FloVENT v8 release include:

• A “Zoom-In” feature that enables a designer to select a region of a model and create a more complex micro-model for that section, including boundary conditions from previous analyses. Then a more detailed study can be performed on that section without carrying the overhead of the full-system level model.
• An improved radiative exchange factor solver results in up to a 40x improvement in execution times for larger design models, according to the company. This reduces the time required to calculate the effects of radiative heat exchange.
• A “Cold and Hot Aisle Capture Index” has been implemented under license from the American Power Conversion Corporation. It enables designers to analyze the cooling performance in data centers containing models of racks, local cooling resources (e.g. perforated floor tiles or local coolers), and local air extracts (e.g., return vents).

For more information, visit Mentor Graphics’ FloVENT site.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.