Optimisation design of the inlet of an emergency power supply cabin based on its heat dissipation characteristics

ABSTRACT

Good air flow and heat dissipation performance are important factors in ensuring the reliability of emergency power supply cabin (EPSC) equipment. Accordingly, the airflow and temperature fields of the EPSC are analysed by means of an experiment and a computational fluid dynamics analysis (CFD). A comparison between the test results and the simulation results reveals that the simulation analysis can predict the temperature distribution of the EPSC accurately. Based on a verified accurate thermal-fluid coupled analysis, the temperature distribution in the EPSC affected by the inlet parameters is discussed further. The results show that the temperature field of the EPSC changes significantly under a different inlet aspect ratio, inlet angle, and inlet area. They also reveal that the relation between these parameters and the temperature field of the EPSC is not purely linear, but rather, there is an optimum value for each factor. This study provides a reference for the optimal design of the inlet of the EPSC in cases where air cooling is only provided by the diesel generator units themselves.

KEYWORDS:

• Power supply cabin
• air flow
• CFD
• heat dissipation
• inlet optimisation design

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support provided by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51408263), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M611692), the Jiangsu top six talent summit (JZ-2016-013), the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project (18-163-12-ZT-004-041-01).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51408263].