An Approach for Estimating the Total Heat Transfer Rates in Embedded Systems

Thermal design represents an essential stage in the cyber - physical systems development workflow. Recent advances in the field of Industry 4.0 bring into discussion emerging thermal issues due to extended networking and computational requirements, combined with the ongoing efforts of embedded systems miniaturization. Because of the tight constraints applied to the process, achieving an optimal cooling solution represents a challenging perspective. From this point of view, approaches based on conservative assumptions can no longer be acceptable. While multiphysics simulation software can cope with the multiple viewports of the thermal design process, the complexity of such approaches can be overwhelming. The present work addresses such issues by combining discrete event simulation with computer aided engineering software, supported by experimental methods. The approach allows engineers to capture the total heat transfer rate of active heat sources by having just a basic understanding of the synergic nature of cyber - physical systems