Computer Simulations and Thermal Design 391
indoors and sky, ground, and building temperatures for equipment operat-
ing outdoors. The atmospheric radiation described in Chapter 13, Section
13.4 can be accounted for in thermal simulation if the temperatures of the
computational surfaces representing the sky are set to the appropriate sky
temperature.
• Flow Type
The ow inside and around the electronic system under thermal simulation
may be laminar, turbulent, or mixed. However, none of the commercial ther-
mal simulation tools is able to determine whether a ow is locally laminar,
turbulent, or in transition. Therefore, the user needs to specify the ow type
in advance as a global parameter. A good rule of thumb for electronic sys-
tems is ...