HFSS and Icepak

Multiphysics in AEDT

Introduction to Icepak in AEDT

Release 2019 R1
HFSS to Icepak - Background
• Why Run a Multiphysics Simulation?
o Icepak has power input, but power is a volumetric
(equally spaced) distribution through the object
o HFSS calculates electromagnetic heating and
localizes the power generation through all solids
o Icepak also allows the power fields (local powers) to
be read from HFSS and interpolated onto the CFD
mesh
o In higher-temperature problems, Icepak can pass a
steady-state temperature profile back to HFSS
o HFSS can adjust resistivity (increases power) and
loop with Icepak to convergence Temperature in ANSYS Icepak Due to Localized HFSS EM Fields
o This tutorial shows the setup for a One-way and
Looped HFSS to Icepak power transfer

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HFSS to Icepak
• HFSS Model Review:
o Model Geometry
o Material Properties
o Initial Analyze
• One-way Icepak Thermal Setup
o Geometry and Materials Copy
o Setup of Boundary Conditions
o Meshing Setup and Review
o Solver Setup and Run
o Post-Processing

• Model Changes for Looped Multiphysics Run

o Copy and Change in HFSS Setup for Feedback
o Copy and Change in Icepak Connection and Solver
o Analyze and Post-processing

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Model Geometry in HFSS

• Launch ANSYS Electronics Desktop 2019 R1 under the ANSYS EM Suite 2019 R1 drop down in the
Windows start menu
• Start the tutorial by selecting “File” and “Restore Archive” and the “HybridRing1” file
• If you select an object in the tree, other objects will become transparent and you should see an
image similar to the model here

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Material Property Review in HFSS

• To run Multiphysics problems, thermal material

properties need to be added to created
materials
o Right click on the copper material definition in the
model tree and select “Properties…”
o Select the “View/Edit Materials” option to see all
material properties

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Material Property Review in HFSS

• Under the copper material property,

select the “All Properties” option and
make sure that the “Thermal” and the
“Thermal Modifier” options are
checked
o To ensure that temperature feedback will
work, a thermal modifier should be added
for Bulk Conductivity for current-carrying
metals
o Notice that Thermal Conductivity, Mass
Density and Specific Heat should be set
for thermal calculations
o Note: for other properties affected by
electromagnetic fields, include a modifier
for Relative Permittivity and Dielectric
Loss Tangent

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Analyze HFSS

• All electromagnetic Boundaries and

Excitations have been properly setup for this
antenna
• To solve for the fields needed in ANSYS
Icepak, right click on the Baseline solve setup
under Analysis and choose the Analyze
option

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Copying HFSS to Icepak

• While the HFSS setup is being

Analyzed, Select the Desktop tab and
create an Icepak model in your
project
• The initial project will be empty
except for an arbitrary fluid block
• Right click on the Icepak project and
rename it “OneWayIcepak”

Empty Icepak Project

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Copying HFSS to Icepak

• Double click on the HFSS project to relaunch in the

model window
• Select the RungHybridRev1GVS_Vacuum solid and
the Lumped Port sheet
• While the above are selected, click on the
option above the model tree to hide both objects
• Click on “O” on the keyboard for object select and
then press CTRL A (select all objects) and CTRL C
(copy objects)
• Return to the Icepak project (double click in tree),
click in the model window and press CTRL V (paste
all)
• A model similar to the one to the right should
appear

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Icepak Boundary Condition Setup – Air Block

• Note: All geometries are copied with the material

properties that were entered in the HFSS project
o This is why thermal properties should be added to your
material libraries
• The thin fluid block does not leave enough meshed
airspace for a natural convection problem
• To resize, find the air solid in the tree and expand
to select the CreateRegion
o This region is based on the outermost dimensions of all
objects in the model
• The 50 percent offset perpendicular to gravity is
fine, but change the z padding to Absolute offset in
both directions and add a 75 mm value above and
a 35 mm value below
o Adds space for the natural convection plumes to form

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Icepak Boundary Condition Setup – Air Boundary

• Once the air region has been resized,

press “F” to change to face selection
• Select all 6 exterior faces, right click and
select “Assign Thermal” and
“Opening…”
• In the pop-up, leave all defaults
o The default settings for a thermal opening
are zero pressure
o All air that enters is at ambient
temperature
o All air that exits leaves at the calculated
temperature with no pressure drop across
the boundary

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Icepak Boundary Condition Setup – EM Mapping

• Press “O” to switch back to the object (body)

select
• Box select all of the antenna objects, right
click and select “Assign Thermal” and “EM
Loss…”

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Icepak Boundary Condition Setup – EM Mapping

• In the pop-up, choose “Use This Project”

o This should automatically choose the HFSS project as it’s the only
one in the main project
• Select “Simulate source design as needed” and “Preserve
source design solution”
• Under the “Intrinsics” tab, ensure that the Frequency is at 1.9
GHz

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Icepak Meshing Setup – Priorities

• Icepak allows overlapping geometries to help

reduce CAD surfaces in a mesh
o Priority tells the solver which object’s property to use
in volume overlap
• When an Icepak project has been selected, you can
go to “Modeler: Object Priority…” to see which
objects take precedence
o Initially, all are automatically the same

• Note: Leave the pop-up open for the next section

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Icepak Meshing Setup – Priorities

• While the Object Priority window is open, select

all of the metal objects embedded in the epoxy
• Select “Add Priority List” from the Object Priority
window while the objects are selected
o A level 2 Priority list is added to the panel

• Note: Leave the panel open

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Icepak Meshing Setup – Priorities

• In this geometry, the Outer1 and Ant parts

overlap
o Since they are the same material, priority has to be
given to one

• Select the “RingHybridRev1GVS_Outer1” object

in the model tree and “Add Priority List” in the
Object Priority panel
o A third Priority list is added
o Note: Priorities can later be edited by dragging lists
above and below each other

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Icepak Meshing Setup – Global Mesh

• Since the geometries in this model are pretty basic,

we are using the default slider-bar mesher
• Right click on “Mesh” and select “Edit Global
Region”
• Slide the bar to Medium-Fine to better capture the
thinner objects in the model
• Note: The advanced Tab allows you to set your
own mesh settings if the slider bar produces a
mesh that is not to your liking

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Icepak Meshing Review

• CFD meshes are commonly created and refined

before a solve
• Once setup, right click on “Mesh” and choose
“Generate Mesh”
• Once the mesher stops (with no errors), right click
on “Mesh” again and “Mesh Viewer”
o The Mesh Viewer panel will pop up on the screen as
seen here

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Icepak Meshing Review

• In the mesh viewer, check the “Show” option and

make sure that “Cut plane” is selected
• In the “Define plane drop down, choose “X plane
through center”
• Turn the model so that you are looking at the YZ
plane and you should see an image similar to the
one at the bottom right
o Note: You may need to change to the “Wire” option in
the panel for the exact image

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Icepak Meshing Review

• To view individual objects, select the object in the

tree or window and switch to the
“Geometry/Boundary selection” option in the
mesh viewer
o Image shown here is a “Surface only”, “Wire” mesh of
the ring

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Icepak Solver Setup

• Multiple settings are necessary to calculate the

proper CFD and thermal equations in a project
• Right click on the “OneWayIcepak” project and
select “Solution Type…”
o The default settings are to solve for both Temperature
and Flow
o If you are not going to run a flow-only or conduction-
only problem, there is no need to check this on most
models
• Click “OK” to close the popup window

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Icepak Solver Setup

• Right click on the “OneWayIcepak”

project again and select “Design
Setting…”
• The first tab is for “Ambient Conditions”
o Here you can change the temperature of all
your default fluid that enters into the
system
o For this project, we’ll leave the 20 C
ambient

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Icepak Solver Setup

• The gravity direction (important for

natural convection flow) can be changed
in the “Gravity” tab
o Gravity is correct in the Negative Global-Z
direction for this model and nothing has to
be changed
• If you want to Validate your model
before you run, these can be setup under
the “Validations” tab
• Select “OK” to close the pop-up window

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Icepak Solver Setup

• For many models, you only need to add a setup for

the specific physics settings
• Right click on “Analysis” in the Icepak project and
choose “Add Solution Setup”
• The first tab in the panel is the “General” setup
o Name the Solution “OneWayNat”
o Change the number of iterations to 250 (this is set
lower than typical for this tutorial)
o Make sure that both “Temperature” and “Flow” are
selected for the “Problem Types” and that “Laminar” is
chosen for the “Flow Regime”
o Choose “Discrete Ordinates” as the “Radiation Model”
and check the “Include Gravity” box (both NECESSARY
for natural convection)

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Icepak Solver Setup

• Under the “Convergence” tab the convergence

criteria for the solution are set
o Flow, for natural or mixed convection should be
set to 0.0001
o Energy can be left at 1e-07 or changed to 1e-08
(as I have here)
• Under the “Solver Settings” tab, the user is
setting initial values for the simulation
equations
o Allows steady-state models to converge faster
o 0.005 m_per_sec is set opposite to gravity
(positive z direction)
o This panel, however, can be ignored if you want
• Press the “Advanced Options” to review
recommended settings there

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Icepak Solver Setup

• Solver schemes can be altered under the “Advanced

Solver Settings” button to help accelerate flow
convergence
o Setting pressure and Momentum Under-relaxation factors
to 0.7 and 0.3 respectively is recommended for natural
convection problems
o This panel can help with convergence, but changes are not
required or necessary for many models
o This is why thermal properties should be added to your
material libraries
• The Radiation tab offers the options for whichever
radiation model is chosen (Discrete Ordinates here)
o 5 Flow Iterations per Radiation Iteration is recommended
to save solve time
o 2 for all Divisions and Pixels settings is recommended to
increase accuracy
• Once completed, click “OK” to close the setup

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Monitors Setup – Monitor Point

• Monitor points or surfaces are recommended for all

models to help track the solution near critical
temperature and flow points
o When monitors “flatten” it shows that the solution in
that area has converged

• Press “F” for face select and choose the top surface
of the air region
• Right click in the window and select “Assign
Monitor” and “Point…”
o Points are automatically created at the center (2D) or
centroid (3D) of an object
o This center point is above the heated object where the
plume should form
• Name the point OutletMonitor and choose the
“Speed” option under “Flow” and the
“Temperature” option under “Thermal”

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Monitors Setup – Monitor Face

• Make sure that you are still in the face select mode
and click above the top ring surface
o This will choose the top surface in the model
o Press “B” (behind) until the top ring surface is
highlighted instead
• Right click in the window and select “Assign
Monitor” and “Face…”
o In face monitors, every meshed point is taken as a total
(for “Flow” selections and “HeatFlux” and the model
calculated average “Temperature”
• Name the face “RingTemperature” and select
“Temperature” under the “Thermal” options

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Icepak Solve and Monitor

• To start the Icepak solve, right click on

“OneWayNat” under “Analysis” and choose
“Analyze”
o This will start the solution but does no
automatically launch your monitors
• To launch the monitors to track during the
solution, right click “OneWayNat” after the
solution starts and choose “Monitor…”

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Icepak Solve and Monitor

• The “Monitor…” pop-up shows the

monitor points and faces that you’ve
created
• In addition, the residual plots for the
convergence criteria setup in the
solution are also displayed

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Post-processing Icepak

• Once the solution has completed,

press “O” for object (body) select
and choose the ring object
• Right click in the window and
choose “Plot Fields”,
“Temperature” and
“Temperature”
• In the pop-up window, leave all
selected options but check the
“Plot on surface only” option and
select “Done”
• The temperature should look
similar to the image displayed
here
• Notice the approximately 36.8 C
maximum temperature

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Loop Run HFSS Copy

• If the current flow is expected to see larger

resistances, the temperature-dependent resistivity
property of the metal can go up
o This increases the power generated in this volume
o Passing temperature information from Icepak to HFSS can
adjust this property and a loop can be run until the power
and temperature completely converge
• To speed up the loop run setup, we will use the
original HFSS and Icepak projects as a base
o Select the “HFSS_1” project in the tree and type “CTRL C”
o Select the main “HybridRing1” project and type “CTRL V”
➢ A new HFSS project is created
o Right click on the new project and rename it
“HFSS_Feedback”
o Open the “Analysis” section, right click on the setup and
rename the setup “Feedback1”
o This will help to keep track of both variations

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Loop Run HFSS Property Adjustment

• Thermal modifiers already entered for material

properties before one-way passing
o No effect on the result for one-way passing
o NECESSARY for feedback adjustments
• To turn on the feedback in HFSS, open the
HFSS_Feedback project
• Once open, go to the “HFSS” drop down menu
and select “Set Object Temperature…”
• In the pop-up window, check the “Include
Temperature Dependence” and the “Enable
Feedback” options to turn on the loop capabilities
• Select “OK” to close the window

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Loop Run Icepak Copy and Setup

• Copy of Icepak project:

o Select the “OneWayIcepak” project in the tree, and
type “CTRL C”
o Select the main “HybridRing1” project and type “CTRL
V”
o Right Click on the copied project and rename
“FeedbackLoopIcepak”
• As a different variation of the HFSS project will
map the EM fields, the Link has to be changed
o Right click on the “EMLoss1” Thermal input under
“FeedbackLoopIcepak” and select “Properties…”
o Rename the link to “LookLink” and click on “Setup
Link…”
o Select the “Edit Link” option at the top and repoint
the “Use This Project” to “HFSS_Feedback” for Source
Design and “Feedback1: LastAdaptive” for Source
Solution
o Click “OK” to exit

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Loop Run Icepak Copy and Setup

• To differentiate between the Icepak versions,

right click in the Setup and rename it “Feedback1”
• Right click “Feedback1” again and select “Add 2-
Way Coupling…”
• In the pop-up, leave the defaults
o You can add additional loops here
o The “Continue Icepak Iterations During Coupling”
option allows for a full restart (faster solution after the
first run)
o “Max. Icepak Iterations per Coupling:” automatically
stops the subsequent runs after only a few iterations
(OK for full restart as flow should only slightly change)
• Under the “Feedback1” setup, you should now
see a “2-Way Coupling” link

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Loop Run Solve Monitor

• Right click on “Feedback1” and select

“Analyze” to run the looped solution
• The monitor will run similarly to how
it ran before, but you’ll see a “spike”
when the solution restarts with a
new HFSS input
o This spike also shows the temperature
adjustment and should flatten quickly

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Loop Run Post-processing

• Displaying the temperature fields

created before shows a final looped
temperature maximum of
approximately 39.3 C, a 2.5 C
increase!
o Increase would not be seen without the
temperature dependent property loop

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