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With each product generation, American Power Conversion
(APC), a leading manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)
and power management products, has found itself fighting tougher
thermal battles. Users demand higher power, but smaller units, a
combination that creates higher heat loads. Shrinking packages
have made it challenging to effectively locate fans and vents;
correct component placement often proves counter-intuitive, and
the resulting airflow problems can trip up even experienced
thermal engineers.
Faced with these increasingly complex problems, APC turned to
CFD to help ensure the best possible product performance. But
engineering had little CFD experience, and a lengthy learning
process would have left the company vulnerable to potential
schedule slippages. Hence, ease-of-use became the number one
selection criterion.
APC undertook an evaluation of various CFD offerings and
found that Coolit met its needs. The software's intuitive design
rapidly turned APC's CFD users into self-taught veterans,
shrinking the learning process from days to hours. Additionally,
when questions did arise, the engineer received prompt help from
Daat technical support engineers.
Initially, APC integrated CFD into its design effort on a new
uninterruptible power supply. Coolit made it easy to compare
the impact of various parameters, and identify which layouts and
cooling schemes were most effective. It also steered engineering
toward design changes that it previously hadn't considered. For
example, the company had standardized the fan locations inside
enclosures, but after viewing the Coolit airflow animation, it
realized that the standards no longer worked in its increasingly
crowded designs. These changes helped save the company time and
money.
Engineering also had planned to carry-over an existing heat
sink into the new design, but the Coolit analysis showed that
the heat sink was inadequate for the increased power
requirements. Coolit also proved invaluable in component
optimization. For example, heat sinks were selected by trying
different fin topologies and calculating the heat sink
performance. The results quickly pinpointed the best heat sink
for the job.
As the design evolved, Coolit became the arbiter between
electrical and thermal engineering. Electrical engineers needed
more space to squeeze in components and demanded a smaller heat
sink. Thermal engineers claimed the change would raise
components' temperature, and it used Coolit's flow and
temperature visualization and animation tools to make their
point. When electrical engineers questioned the model's
accuracy, thermal engineers pointed to the excellent agreement (within 7%)
between Coolit predictions and physical testing.
Throughout the project, Coolit eliminated trial and error and
uncovered problems without prototype testing. By the time the
project was completed, Coolit had drastically reduced time from
the design schedule and helped APC introduce an improved
design.
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