On behalf of a German company, a control console for a submarine was to be developed and built. This console is the heart of a submarine, meaning the operational reliability of the electronic components inside must be guaranteed under all circumstances.
The electronic components in the console generated a total of more than 1.0 kW of heat inside the unit. This had to be dissipated to prevent the components from exceeding their maximum operating temperatures. Furthermore, the supply air temperature available for cooling the console on a submarine can be as high as 50 °C. This extremely small temperature difference between the cooling air and the components necessitated an optimisation of the internal cooling airflow.
For this part of the project, FlowMotion was commissioned to carry out a full flow simulation of the console using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) calculations. The aim of these simulations was to verify the feasibility of the cooling for the stringent thermal boundary conditions described and, if necessary, to optimise the airflow inside the console through appropriate internal fittings.
For the simulations, a 3D model of the console’s interior was created, including all relevant fittings. The effect of the many cooling fans on the components and the console itself was also taken into account. The simulations showed that extremely complex temperature, velocity, and pressure distributions occurred inside the console, which could change completely with small adjustments to the geometric arrangement of the internal components. Ultimately, with the help of the flow simulations, a configuration was found that achieved all the design goals.
