Home › CFD Consulting Services › Heat Transfer Solutions
Conduction, convection, and cooling solved before tooling, not in field failures
Send your CAD and heat loads. Get a roadmap to a cooler design. Free.
Simple calculations give one average temperature. Real equipment has hot spots where heat can't get out. When heat isn't modeled, teams add fans, fins, and coolant flow to be safe.
They pay for that on every unit and every hour of operation. Or they find the hot spot in test or in the field, where every fix costs a redesign.
Heat transfer solutions built on CFD model conduction through the solid and convection heat transfer into the air or coolant. You see where temperatures peak and why. Then we change the heat path on screen, before tooling is cut.
✓
Hot spots only show up on the bench
Measured temperatures beat every estimate.
✓
Fans and fins were added after the first test
Cooling became a cost you didn't plan.
✓
Heat exchangers miss their duty
Uneven flow leaves surface area unused.
✓
Electronics enclosure overheating pushes parts near their limits
Heat shortens life and trips shutdowns.
✓
Seals, coatings, or plastics degrade early
Local heat beats the material rating.
✓
Coolant flow and fan power were set just in case
You pay for that energy every hour.
Cost you carry
Decision it lets you make
Result
Unit cost
Material & weight
Decision
Find where heat builds and how it leaves, then size cooling to the real load
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Result
Cooling that fits the duty, with no oversizing
Development
Prototypes & testing
Decision
Predict temperatures before the build; go to test to confirm the hot spots
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Result
Fewer prototype loops and shorter thermal tests
Tooling
Rework & redesign
Decision
Fix the airflow or heat path in the model before tooling is cut
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Result
Tooling built once
After launch
Field failures & warranty
Decision
Model real duty cycles and ambient conditions; release with documented temperatures
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Result
Longer equipment life and a design you can defend
01
A design that meets your loads at the lowest total cost, delivered as production-ready CAD and drawings
02
FEA results and margins you review and approve at each gate, before anything moves to prototyping.
03
You own the IP by default, set in your contract.
04
If we missed it in our QC, we fix it. If your supplier can't make the part within three years, or supply dries up, we fix that too.
You send
What we need to start
CAD, native or STEP
Loads and operating conditions, or how the part is used
Material specs or test data, if you have it
Targets: weight, cost, life, or code
Failure history, if a part already failed
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You get
What you hold at the end
The optimized design: CAD and drawings ready for production
Models and results you reviewed and approved
Documented margins or code compliance
Test correlation, when testing is in scope: a partner lab or yours
A roadmap for what comes next, and a team that stays with you
We price to the value we deliver, not the hours we log. If the value isn't there for you, we'll say so in the assessment.
We review your project scope and the data you have and find where heat drives the risk.
Scope, targets, and gates, from where you are to where you need to be.
Conjugate heat transfer CFD with CAD changes, plus thermal tests when needed.
The design, drawings, and models, second-checked in our QMS.
We stand behind the design through production and supply issues.
Our engineers run CFD, FEA, and DFMA as one loop. CFD sets the temperatures. When heat turns into stress, our FEA thermal analysis services check the parts. CAD changes follow, and build cost is checked before tooling. It is the same method behind all our CFD consulting services.
One average temperature
Or add fans until it does
Tooling and test article paid for
The hot spot shows up on the bench
New geometry, new prototype, new test
Where heat drives the risk
Solid and fluid, solved together
Geometry refined to real margins
Second engineer verifies the model
Build once, to confirm
Every hot spot found in test costs a prototype. Get a free roadmap.
Get Your Free RoadmapRacks, cold plates, and cooling units modeled so all the servers stay inside their limits at full load.
Run cool at full load.
Applications
Racks
Cold Plates
Airflow
Bolted Joints
Generators, transformers, and heat exchangers checked so their cooling keeps up at peak summer demand.
Fewer forced outages.
Applications
Generators
Exchangers
Peak Load
Elastomers
Avionics boxes and power electronics cooled for altitude, ambient, and duty cycle before qualification.
Ready for the qual test.
Applications
Avionics
Altitude
Duty Cycle
Fatigue
Battery packs, power electronics, and engine bays modeled so parts stay below their temperature limits.
Ready for the heat soak.
Applications
Batteries
Inverters
Engine Bay
Class Rules
FEA, CFD, CAD, DFMA, and testing under one roof. Engineering is a team sport, and you get the whole team.
One team, every skill.
Under One Roof
FEA
CFD
CAD
DFMA
Testing
Veteran-owned SDVOSB status gives defense and federal buyers a set-aside path to proven engineering.
Verify our SDVOSB status.
Credentials
SDVOSB
VOSB
CAGE 8ZK73
NAICS 541330
Missed something in our QC? We fix it. Supplier can't make the part within three years? We fix that too.
Support for the long run.
We Fix
Our QC Misses
Supplier Gaps
Supply Chain
We price to the value we deliver, not hours logged. You buy a design that works, not more iterations.
Pay for the result only.
Collections
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
When does my design need heat transfer solutions?
Your design needs heat transfer solutions when local temperatures, not average ones, decide whether it works. Simple thermal analysis gives one temperature for the whole part. Real equipment has hot spots where airflow is weak or heat paths are long, and those spots set its life. Watch for four signs. Bench tests show temperatures nobody predicted. Fans or fins were added after the first test. A heat exchanger misses its duty. Electronics enclosure overheating pushes parts near their limits. Each one costs parts and energy on every unit, or failures in the field. The ASME V&V 20 standard shows how thermal CFD is checked against test.
In a free assessment, we review your project scope and heat loads and show where heat drives the risk. If a simple calculation is enough, we say so. If not, CFD thermal analysis maps temperatures, airflow, and margins before tooling. For heat exchanger thermal analysis, we check flow and surface use together. Our engineers then change the heat path on screen, not after the first article.
What is conjugate heat transfer, and do I need it?
Our heat transfer solutions often use conjugate heat transfer. The model solves conduction through the solid parts and convection in the air or coolant around them at the same time. It doesn't guess how much heat the fluid carries away. It computes it, cell by cell, from the real physics. Simpler heat transfer simulation guesses a film coefficient on each surface. That guess fails when airflow is uneven, when parts sit close together, or when heat from one part warms the air that cools the next. Then a small layout change moves the hot spot. Good fluid data matters too, such as the NIST fluid property tables.
When simpler methods are enough, we say so in the free assessment. When conjugate modeling is needed, our CFD thermal simulation runs in ANSYS Fluent, STAR-CCM+, or OpenFOAM, with radiation where surfaces run hot. Results show temperature maps, airflow, and margin to each component limit. We validate the model against your test data when you have it. Native model files come back to you at delivery.
What do you need from us to start?
To start work on heat transfer solutions, send what you have, in any format. That usually means CAD, native or STEP, plus heat loads, fans, coolant, and ambient conditions for each operating case. Add your temperature limits, life targets, and any test data or failure history you have. Missing data is the most common reason engineering projects stall, and it costs you time and budget. A model built on guessed inputs gives a guessed answer. Material data is a common gap, and NIST material measurement data is a good first stop. That is why we don't start the work until every data set is in.
Once it is, the first step is a free assessment of your project scope and data. We confirm what the work can and can't answer, and tell you what is still missing. Then we send a roadmap proposal with scope, targets, and approval gates. Every project is scoped on its own, so the roadmap sets the schedule, not a stock promise. NDAs are available before you share any files.
Who owns the design and the models?
You own the IP from your heat transfer solutions project by default, set in your contract. That covers the design, the drawings, and the models. Some firms keep the models, or license them back to you, so every later change sends you back to them and their rates. That locks your product to one vendor for its whole life. It also makes design reviews harder, because your team can't open the evidence behind each decision. If your program falls under export rules, data handling matters too. The State Department's ITAR guidance sets the rules for defense data, and a loose process puts you at risk.
At delivery, you receive the native CAD, the drawings, the model files, and the documented results. Your engineers can check the work, rerun a case, or hand the package to a supplier or customer. We sign mutual NDAs before any data is shared. Your files stay in controlled project folders. Tell us your export or customer data rules at the start, and we set up handling to match.
What happens if a prototype runs hotter than modeled?
If a design built on our heat transfer solutions runs hotter than modeled, we find out why. Real loads, materials, and assembly effects never match a model perfectly on day one. Because you approve the data at each gate, a test result is checked against predictions you have already seen. A failed thermal test feels like a setback, but it is useful data. It shows which assumption was wrong: a heat load, a contact resistance, or a boundary condition. Without a plan, that data gets argued over instead of used to fix the design. Thermocouple placement matters too, because one bad reading can send the fix the wrong way.
When testing is in scope, we plan it with a partner lab to confirm the temperatures that matter most to you. Then we correlate the model to the results, following the ASME V&V 20 standard. If the miss was ours, we fix it. If the test finds a condition nobody knew about, we scope the change with you and update the roadmap together.
How are thermal simulation services priced?
We price heat transfer solutions and all our thermal simulation services to the value they deliver, not the hours we log. Hourly billing rewards extra iterations. The cheapest quote often becomes the most expensive project once rework and field failures show up. Our incentive is to get it right. We engage by fit, not as a ladder, and you can move between them. Gold (from $35K): you have one project and need help with it. Platinum (from $15K/mo): you have recurring work at a steady rhythm. Diamond (from $800K/yr): you have a long development program, often multi-year. Federal buyers can also use the SBA's SDVOSB set-aside program.
Gold is never required, and some clients start at Platinum or Diamond. These are starting points, not quotes or bids. Thermal management consulting on one part and thermal fluid analysis services on a full system are scoped the same way. We price to the value we deliver, not the hours we log. If the value isn't there for you, we'll say so in the assessment.
Not sure where the heat goes? Send the model. Free roadmap.
Send your CAD, heat loads, and limits. We review your project scope in a free assessment and reply within one business day with next steps. You can also [contact our CFD engineers](/contact-engineering-consulting/) directly.
On-site assessments that require travel are quoted separately.
