Efficient Thermo-Mechanical Simulations Using Superelements
Tutorial Leader: Tamara Bechtold (aided by Patrick Kohaus, MsC)
Heat is a key limiting factor in many modern technologies. From highly integrated electronics and microelectronic packaging to batteries and electrical machines, thermal and thermo-mechanical effects strongly influence performance, reliability, and lifetime.
High-fidelity finite element simulations can capture these effects accurately, but today’s models are often too large and computationally expensive for fast design studies, optimization, control, or system-level simulation. Compact surrogate models offer an attractive solution: they retain the essential physics while drastically reducing computational cost.
In this tutorial, industry-relevant examples are used to demonstrate how compact thermo-mechanical models can accelerate digital product development, enable efficient optimization and control, and support IP-protected model exchange along the supply chain. The tutorial introduces the underlying principles of model order reduction in an accessible way and shows how these methods can be integrated into practical engineering workflows.
Particular emphasis is placed on superelement-based approaches for thermal and thermo-mechanical applications. Participants will gain an overview of current modeling strategies, state-of-the-art software tools, and practical implementation aspects, including model generation, coupling, and reuse in system-level simulations.
Prof. Dr.-Ing Tamara Bechtold
Professor of Mechatronic Systems
Jade University of Applied Sciences
Biography: Tamara Bechtold received her PhD in microsystem simulation from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2005. From 2006 to 2010, she worked as a research engineer at Philips Research Laboratories and NXP Semiconductors in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Her work focused on enhancing standard IC design flows through model order reduction and optimization methods.
From 2011 to 2014, she served as interim Professor of Microsystems Simulation at the University of Freiburg. She subsequently joined the University of Rostock, Germany, where she worked as a lecturer and research group leader. Since 2017, she has been a full Professor of Mechatronic Systems at Jade University of Applied Sciences in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Since 2022, she has also served as Managing Director of a Steinbeis Transfer Center.
Dr. Bechtold is the author or co-author of more than 150 scientific and technical publications in the field of modeling and simulation of micro- and mechatronic systems. She is the lead author of the Springer textbook Fast Simulations of Electro-Thermal Microsystems: Efficient Dynamic Compact Models and the main editor of System-Level Modeling of MEMS, published by Wiley-VCH within the Advanced Micro and Nanosystems series.
Her research interests include advanced methods of model order reduction, topology optimization, and multi-physics modeling at both device and system level. A particular focus of her work is the development of efficient compact models for engineering applications, enabling simulation, optimization, control, and model exchange in industrial design processes.