CFD Consulting Services - CFD Hands On

AVIONICS

Consulting: Thermal optimization of a BluRay® disc player installed onboard of commercial airplanes:

Max temperatures 52°C cooler than in the baseline design
Critical temperatures and specifications respected in the final configuration
Only 1 optimization of the initial configuration (hence 2 thermal simulations performed)

With a very brief development cycle at hand, the engineering manager submits to CFD Hands On his 3D CAD geometry of a Blue Ray disc player his team is conceiving. As in every avionics system, specifications are strict: weight, size, temperatures,… And the cooling of the player must be efficient to ensure reliability.

Architecture and environment are demanding:

ambient temperature is 55°C, and most critical components cannot exceed 85°C (hence an authorized delta of only 30°C),

dissipated power is in the 80W-range,

external architecture of the player cannot be modified.

CFD is essential to validate the concept virtually and optimize it prior to the physical tests that will lead to final validation, while respecting the development agenda and costs.

The initial design is analyzed quickly and shows that max temperatures are greatly exceeded: 126°C instead of 85°C. An interactive results presentation shows that hot air is concentrated on critical components, while cooler air moves freely in colder areas. As a team, the customer knowing perfectly his manufacturing constraints and CFD Hands On pointing out to various ways of optimizing the cooling, we jointly decide on the changes to the baseline concept. For example:

optimizing the operating points of the fans by changing their positions to improve the air flow,
reversing the air flow to make sure a rather cool air impinges on critical components,…

On this second design concept, max temperatures did not exceed 76°C (a 52°C drop, or 60% compared to the baseline concept). The specifications were exceeded and the agenda respected thanks to this service project.