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Numerical Investigation of Forced Convection cooling of Electrical enclosure

using CFD

Article · November 2015

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Lakshminarasimha. N Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com
ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 5, Issue 11, (Part - 5) November 2015, pp.62-66

RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

Numerical Investigation of Forced Convection cooling of

Electrical enclosure using CFD
Lakshminarasimha. N., IGBC AP
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MVJ College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

Abstract
Electrical enclosures consist of high heat generating electrical components, so removal of heat generated
remains as our primary aim. To achieve this, cooling the electrical equipment is always an economical and
optimum solution to keep the electrical components to their operating temperature limits. Placing the cooling
components in the enclosure is another important parameter to be considered. This parameter can be judged
using a simple CFD analysis.
Therefore in the present work CFD simulation has been carried out by considering a typical Aluminum
Electrical enclosure of volume (300mm X 300mm X 300mm) with total internal heat dissipation of 150W. With
those values into consideration the surface area of enclosure, enclosure temperature rise, air flow requirement in
an enclosure is calculated and based on which the fan is selected.
Keywords- Enclosure, cooling, temperature rise, CFD
temperature in an enclosure and representing results
Terminology through color post-script.
CFD- Computational Fluid Dynamics
CFM- Cubic Feet per minute II. Literature Survey
∆T- Temperature rise Literature survey has been conducted based on
3D- Three dimensional available journals and Industrial data sheets.
TSA- Total surface area Summaries of few important surveyed literatures are
as below:
I. Introduction Hoffman, Pentair Company, [1], [2003], this
Any electrical system without an enclosure is technical manual is a ready reckoner for designing an
incomplete. As enclosure protects the electrical electronic enclosure. Also this manual is helpful for
components from environmental hazards and it helps engineers in preliminary design stage of any
to provide safe cooling mechanism for electrical electronic enclosure in evaluating any kind/type of
components. Any Enclosures can be cooled through design aspects.
following cooling mechanisms: Natural convection,
Forced convection and closed loop cooling. MahendraWankhede, et al, [2], [2010], Paper deals
Electrical enclosure cooling becomes a necessity with CFD analysis of Aluminium enclosure.
because research has shown that enclosure Enclosure consists of 100W heat generating PCBs.
temperature rise on every 100C rise above normal Paper concludes that use of internal fans reduces
room temperature decreases life of electrical enclosure internal air temperature by 20- 25%
components and its reliability is cut by half [1]. Hence compared to enclosure with no fans.
maintaining enclosure temperature rise becomes a
preliminary criterion. Through the Literature survey, found that many
Present work deals with both flow and thermal literatures are available on cooling of Chip and PCBs.
analysis using FLUENT (CFD) on an electrical However from the available resource and data’s,
enclosure consisting heat generating source effort has been made to carry out this work.
dissipating heat of 150 W. Study comprises on
calculating surface area of enclosure, Internal III. 3. Methodology
temperature rise in an enclosure, air flow
requirement, selecting a fan for an enclosure, ANSYS products have flexibility in modeling,
determining maximum velocity and temperature meshing and analysis, all combined in single
through numerical simulation and graphical software. Present analysis work carried using
representation of the results. ANSYS FLUENT.
CFD is a powerful tool for investigating complex CFD process involves following steps:
internal flow problems and in predicting the flow and i. Preprocessing- involves Geometry, Meshing
and Boundary conditions

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ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 5, Issue 11, (Part - 5) November 2015, pp.62-66

ii. Solver- involves Discretization by

substitution and solution for algebraic
equation
iii. Post processing- involves color postscript
Similarly the present analysis on electrical enclosure
has been carried out following above steps

3.1 Modeling

Figure 1, shows the 3D model of electrical enclosure

consisting Inlet, Exhaust fan/outlet and Heat block.
The enclosure is of volume 300mm X 300mm X
300mm. Inlet is provided at mid of the front wall and
exhaust fan is at mid of rear wall. The enclosure Figure 3: Mesh convergence plot
material is aluminum. 3.3 Boundary Conditions

Before applying Boundary conditions to the domain

few parameters need to calculated and is followed
below:
3.3.1 Calculating TSA of enclosure

Enclosure size: A x B x C= 300 mm X 300 mm X

300 mm
In feet,
TSA= 2(A x B) + 2(A x C) + 2(B x C)
TSA= 5.81 ft2

3.3.2 Calculating air flow requirement in CFM and

Fan selection
Figure 1: Electrical enclosure
Enclosure internal heat dissipation is 150W. Hence
3.2 Meshing
from Figure 4, for 150 W heat dissipation: 4 ” fan is
selected and enclosure ∆T is 6.50F (30C).
Figure 2 shows the hexa mapped mesh. Model has
been meshed with 13512 elements and 14902 nodes.
Figure 3 shows mesh convergence plot.

Figure 2: 3D Mesh model

Figure 4: Fan selection chart [1]
Air flow requirement in CFM [1] = (3.16 x heat
dissipated in Watts) / Temperature rise in 0F

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ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 5, Issue 11, (Part - 5) November 2015, pp.62-66

Therefore, Air flow required = (3.16 X 150)/ 6.5 = a) Velocity contour

72.92 CFM Figure 5 shows the cut plane velocity contour.
Considering 25% safety margin [1], From the figure it is clear that the maximum velocity
= 1.25 X 72.92= 91.15 CFM= 92 CFM is found near inlet. The maximum velocity was found
to be 36.51 m/s.
Hence, CFM required for 4” fan is 92 CFM
Now Boundary conditions are applied based on b) Temperature contour
above calculations: Figure 6 shows the Temperature contour cut
Outlet: Exhaust fan with 92 CFM plane. Maximum temperature was found at
Wall: Stationary and No slip condition surrounded surface of heated block and its value
Block: Heat load of 150W obtained is 82.06 0C.
Thermal Condition: Coupled
c) Vector and Stream line plots
3.4 Solution Controls Figure 7 shows the vector plot and stream line
Flow is considered to be steady and turbulent. plots of velocity and temperature. This signifies the
Turbulent model selected is standard K- epsilon distribution of air and direction of flow in the
model hence two equations: turbulent Kinetic energy domain. The air flow is from left to right.
and turbulent dissipation rate are solved. SIMPLE
discretization scheme is used for solving momentum 3.7 Results validation
and turbulent equations. Results obtained for the problem are converged
results. However results obtained from analysis is
3.5 Mathematical Models compared with analytical calculations.
Fluent code solves governing equations for each
and every cell in the domain. The governing a) Temperature rise (∆T):
equations are: Figure 8 shows the snap shot of FLUENT (CFD)
result. It shows the temperature values at exhaust fan
i. Mass conservation equation and inlet. The difference in those value gives ∆T and
ii. Momentum conversation equation it is found to be 3 0C.
iii. Energy conservation equation
Since flow is turbulent, another equation is solved
that is K-epsilon model, it consists of two equations:
turbulent Kinetic energy (eqn. a) and turbulent
dissipation rate (eqn. b)
∂ ∂ ∂ μt ∂k Figure 8: Temperature rise- CFD result
ρk + ρkui = μ+ + Gk +
∂t ∂x i ∂x j σk ∂x j
Gb − ρϵ − YM + Sk ……….. (eqn. a) From Figure 4, ∆T = 6.5 0F i.e. 30C. Hence CFD
And result is matching analytical approach for ∆T in an
∂ ∂ ∂ μt ∂ϵ enclosure.
ρϵ + ρϵui = μ+ +
∂t ∂x i ∂x j σϵ ∂x j
ϵ ϵ2 b) Checking for heat balance
C1ϵ Gk + C3ϵ Gb − C2ϵ ρ + Sϵ …… (eqn. b)
k k Heat balance in here means heat input to the
k2
Where, turbulent or eddy viscosity, μt = ρCμ and enclosure should be equal to heat lost from the
ϵ
Gk& Gb represents the generation of turbulence enclosure. The total heat dissipated in an enclosure is
kinetic energy due to mean velocity gradients and 150 W, this is the amount of heat to be removed and
buoyancy. YM represents the contribution of the heat balance to be maintained. Figure 9 shows the
fluctuating dilation in compressible turbulence to the CFD result and it is evident that heat balance is
overall dissipation rate [5]. maintained. Negative sign indicates that heat is
removed.
IV. Discussion of Results
The results obtained from the analysis are
graphically represented through velocity and
temperature contours plot which helps us to know
maximum flow velocity and maximum temperature
zones in an enclosure. The results are discussed
below: Figure 9: Total heat transfer rate- CFD result

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c) Validating maximum velocity Present work is no means exhaustive; always

Considered flow to be incompressible and steady there is a scope for further optimization.
We know 92 CFM is at Outlet,
Considering, Velocity inlet = Velocity outlet REFERENCES
= [92 x (0.305)3] / 60= 0.0435m3/s [1] Hoffman- A Pentair Company, “Heat
Now, 0.0435 / (0.03 x 0.03) = 48.33 m/s dissipation in Electrical enclosure”,
“Technical information on Thermal
From Figure 5, CFD result for Maximum Management of Electrical enclosures”,
velocity was found to be 36. 51 m/s whereas ©2003 Hoffman Enclosures Inc.
analytically obtained maximum velocity at inlet is [2] MahendraWankhede, VivekKhaire, Dr.
48.33 m/s. The obtained result is validating and AvijitGoswami and Prof. S. D. Mahajan,
signifying that the CFD result is converging towards “Evaluation of cooling solutions for outdoor
analytical result. electronics”, Journal on electronics cooling
From all the above comparisons it is evident that from electronics-cooling.com, Volume 16,
the domain is maintained for both mass and heat No. 3, Fall 2010
balance and also for ∆T in an enclosure. [3] Bud Industries, Inc., “Enclosure Design Tips
Handbook”, July 2007, © Bud Industries
V. CONCLUSIONS Inc.
CFD analysis has been carried on Electrical [4] “A practical formula for air-cooled boards in
enclosure consisting heat block, dissipating heat of ventilated enclosures”, from link:
150 W. The heat block is cooled through forced http://www.electronics-
convection by providing adequate amount of air flow cooling.com/1997/09/a-practical-formula-
in an enclosure. The following conclusions that can for-air-cooled-boards-in-ventilated-
be drawn from the results obtained are: enclosures/
i. CFD is the powerful and effective tool for [5] ANSYS Fluent User Guide, Release 15.0,
Thermal management of Electronic & Electrical Nov. 2013 and ANSYS Fluent 12.0, Theory
enclosures guide, April 2009
ii. Work is a ready reckoner for engineers in [6] H K Versteeg and W Malalasekara,
helping them on how to: select a fan, calculate “Computational Fluid Dynamics- Finite
air flow requirement and temperature rise for an Volume Method”, Text book of CFD,
enclosure based on both analytical and CFD edition 1995
methods [7] Younus. A. Cengel, “Text book of Heat
iii. Temperature rise with fan placed at the optimum transfer- chapter 15- cooling of electronic
location was found to be 3 0C which is well equipments”
below the threshold limit.

Figure 5: Velocity contour plot

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 Lakshminarasimha. N Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com
ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 5, Issue 11, (Part - 5) November 2015, pp.62-66

Figure 6: Temperature contour plot

Figure 7: Vector and stream line plots

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