CFD modelling of the flow field inside a reflow oven Available to Purchase

Because of new requirements related to the employment of lead‐free manufacturing and the diversity of components and metal finishes on high density printed circuit boards, better understanding and control of the reflow process is required in order to achieve acceptable yields and reliability of SMT assemblies. Accurate control of the temperature distributions within components and boards during the reflow process is one of the major requirements, especially in lead‐free assembly. This paper outlines a scheme for reflow modelling and presents an oven‐level model of the steady state flow‐field inside a reflow oven, which will be needed in subsequent transient analysis and small‐scale modelling. The model is constructed by utilising the advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology using commercial software. The computational results are discussed and compared with measured data.