An Accurate Mesh-Based Equivalent Circuit Approach to Thermal Modeling

This paper presents a method of automatically constructing and parameterizing accurate lumped parameter thermal equivalent circuits (TECs) with nodes arranged in a regular mesh pattern. The approach exhibits a number of advantages over conventional lumped parameter TECs including superior thermal field resolution, reduced model construction and setup times and more accurate identification of hot-spot temperatures and their location. The method serves as a desirable compromise between the fine detail and high computational cost of a full finite element analysis and the coarse detail and short solution times afforded by lumped parameter TECs. The benefits of the method are demonstrated by the analysis and experimental test of a demonstration linear actuator.