A typical application of fluid simulation is modelling the cooling of electrical (e.g. pumps) or electronic (computer clusters) equipment. This type of equipment can suffer damage or malfunction (decrease in efficiency) when temperatures are not much higher than ambient temperature (for example, above 40ºC).

For this reason, a good cooling system design is necessary to guarantee that the equipment does not reach the maximum limit temperatures and, in addition, optimizes the energy consumption. For these reasons, fluid simulation (CFD) is applied to this type of problem regularly. 

In this post, we describe the application of fluid simulation (CFD) to the building where the Almudévar reservoir pumping station pumps are housed. The pump station consists of 7 pumps (one of them will generally not be active). The heat released by the pump speed drives is considerable (more than 100 kW per pump). In addition, depending on the day and time the pumping is carried out (for example, a summer day at 2:00 p.m.), the heat received by the building from the environment is considerable. Considering these heat sources and that the maximum air temperature in the building should not exceed 40ºC, a cooling system is necessary.

The designed system consists of air inlets located just in front of the pump speed drives and a set of fans situated in the opposite wall. The fans create an adequate airflow to cool the areas near the pumps without reaching the maximum temperature set.

nablaDot, using fluid simulation techniques, has supported the design of the cooling system for the pumps. In the following video, you can see the air temperature evolution in two transverse planes of the pumping station.

The following video shows the evolution of the air temperature in a horizontal plane (at the level of the air inlets) and a vertical plane located between the air inlets and the pump speed drives.

Fluid simulation provides valuable and detailed information to achieve a suitable design of the cooling systems of electrical and electronic equipment. A bad design can lead to operational problems and material damage with considerable economic costs.