Complex thermal models based on 3D CAD

and solving the problem as if it were an electric circuit. Such an approach requires much less computing power than trying to mesh a complex fabrication and then analyse it using a finite element based method. Robert Platek, an Associated Scientist at the ABB Corporate Research Center on Krakow, Poland, speaking at a SolidWorks event, explained that finite element methods, such Abaqus, finite difference methods such as Maya, and Finite volume methods such as Fluent, “Require a lot of computation” when applied to complex fabrications such as switchgear. The only alternative is to, “Break up the object into a number of sub volumes, either nodes or library blocks”. More details about this and other engineering software developments will be found in a special supplement, “Design your Future” to be published with Eureka in the near future.