Thermal and fluid simulation of reflow soldering process of chip resistor using OpenFOAM

(Investigation of suitable physical properties of liquid solder)

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics simulation has been used to investigate reflow soldering process for a small electronics component. Isothermal immiscible two-phase flow of air and solder is considered with a VOF method using OpenFOAM. In this study, the effects of physical properties of liquid solder on the movement of air/solder interface are examined. A viscosity has been changed from the lowest value for molten solder to the highest value for solder paste. Lower kinematic viscosity causes the excessive deformation of the interface. The excessive deformation will result in an unrealistic movement of small electronics components. A reasonable modeling will be needed to simulate reflow process.