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Aim: To build the model for a low-voltage control panel, as per the given specifications, and perform a steady-state thermal analysis of the same. Introduction: Low voltage control panel:- A low voltage panel is a component of an electrical distribution system that divides an electrical power feed into branch…
Arun Gupta
updated on 17 Sep 2022
Aim: To build the model for a low-voltage control panel, as per the given specifications, and perform a steady-state thermal analysis of the same.
Introduction:
Objectives:
Geometry:
Two grilles are defined on a pair of opposite walls of the control panel to allow: the ambient air to move into the control panel and the air inside the control panel to move out of it. The grille for the intake of ambient air is placed near the base of the control panel while the grille for the output of hot air is placed near the top of the control panel. Hence the two grilles allow air-cooling of the heat-generating components (located inside the control panel) due to natural convection. The image attached below shows the control panel. The complete model of the control panel is created in ANSYS Icepak using the following steps:
Busbars and circuit-breakers: They form the internal components of the control panel and are created, as per the given dimensions, using multiple "Blocks" objects available in Icepak. The dimensions and locations of the circuit breakers are assumed appropriately. The images attached below show the geometry settings used to define one of each of the busbars and the circuit breakers.
ii. Circuit-breaker IG
All the internal components (busbars and cables are assigned the same solid material ("Cu-Pure") and surface material ("Cu-polished-surface") except circuit breakers
Control panel: It houses the current carrying components (busbars) and circuit-breakers and is created using the "Enclosure" object available in Icepak, as per the given outer dimensions. "Steel-Carbon-1020" and "Paint-white-acrylic" are used as the solid material and the surface material respectively, for the control panel. Each wall of the control panel is assigned a "Thin" type boundary condition and a thickness of 2 mm. Radiation heat transfer is enabled for all the walls of the control panel. The images attached below show the settings applied in the "Geometry" and "Properties" tabs, to define the control panel.
Meshing
After completing the above steps, the computational mesh is generated. The image attached below shows the "Mesh control" window.
The image shows that the generated mesh yields 955516elements and 1123969 nodes. The images attached below show the computational mesh on three mutually perpendicular planes, each passing through the center of the cabinet.
i. X-plane
The above image shows the mesh from the XYZ direction. the mesh was finer to capture all physics. Visually the mesh appears to be fine. The images attached below show the histograms with the number of elements plotted along the X-axis and the quality measures plotted along the Y-axis.
1. Face alignment 2. Skewness
The below images shows the quality of the mesh elements with a Face alignment of 0.93 and skewness is 0.77.
Solver:
The three-dimensional steady-state Navier-Stokes equations for the model are solved within the computational domain using the Fluent solver available in ANSYS Icepak. The following settings are applied to the solver:
Results:
In the current section, the simulation results are discussed.
1. Residuals:
The residuals of the following equations are plotted against the number of iterations:
The image attached below shows the residuals plotted against the number of iterations.
The solution got converged about 450 iterations and The solution residuals show better convergence characteristics. and the solution converged quickly.
Velocity Contours/ Vector:
The steady-state velocity contours and vectors are plotted on the X-plane passing through the center of the cabinet, as shown in the image attached below.
The plot shows that the air within the computational domain is in a state of motion. This can be attributed to natural convection which drives the air upwards, against the gravitational field, due to the difference in density created by the virtue of temperature difference. According to the contour legend the maximum air velocity on the X-plane passing through the center of the cabinet is 1.2 m/s.
Temperature contours:
The steady-state temperature contours are plotted on the X-plane passing through the center of the cabinet, as shown in the image attached below.
The plot shows that the air within the computational domain is cooler than any other object. It can be seen that the temperature of the air within the computational domain increases as we move up (against gravity). This can be explained in the following manner: the air that is in direct contact with the comparatively hotter objects takes up their heat due to which its temperature increases and its density decreases. Under the influence of the downward gravitational field, this lighter (hotter) air rises up and the surrounding heavier (cooler) air rushes in to fill up the evacuated space. The contours show that the circuit-breaker IG attains the highest steady-state temperature, followed by busbar-B, busbar-C, the remaining circuit-breakers, and the remaining busbars respectively.
Particle traces:
The steady-state particle traces (colored by temperature) of 100 particles that originate at the lower grille of the control panel are plotted within the computational domain, as shown in the animation attached below.
The animation clearly shows the steady-state pathlines traced by air particles, that originate at the lower grille of the control panel, within the computational domain. The color of a pathline at a particular location indicates the temperature of the air particle that traces the pathline, at that location.
Heat flow:
Temperature:
Conclusion:
In the current project, the model of a low-voltage control panel was created in ANSYS Icepak using the given design specifications. The model was meshed using the following features available in the Icepak mesher: non-conformal meshing and per-object meshing parameters. The solver was setup using suitable settings to incorporate the following physical phenomena:
The three-dimensional steady-state governing equations for the model were solved for flow and thermal fields within the computational domain using the Fluent solver available in ANSYS Icepak. The following conclusions can be drawn based on the simulation results:
i. According to the steady-state velocity contours, the maximum velocity within the computational domain is 1.2 m/s.
ii. The highest steady-state temperature within the computational domain is attained by the circuit-breaker IG and its numerical value is 74.64 °C.
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