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Avionics developer Honeywell, saves months of development and
testing time by using Coolit for thermal design optimization.
Coolit can pinpoint ideal locations for cooling fins, identify
the thermal impact of changing altitudes and various ambient
temperatures, and provide a basis for resolving conflicts
between thermal and electronic design.
Thermal and electronics engineers are often at odds over
chassis design. Thermal engineers want to maximize air exchange
with the ambient, while electronics engineers seek to minimize
chassis openings to improve EMI protection. Optimizing EMI
design often means dividing a chassis into compartments, a
feature that further restricts airflow.
Recently, thermal engineers at Honeywell designed a
forced-air cooling system for a general aviation package that
drew significantly higher power than its predecessor did. The
new design incorporated a fan and cooling fins. Initially, the
ideal fin locations seemed intuitive. However, when Coolit
analyzed the layout, it showed that regardless of fin size or
spacing, the cooling fins at these initial locations were
creating thermal problems instead of fixing them.
Thermal engineers combined experimental design techniques
with Coolit analyses to quickly identify suitable sites and
optimum fin design. The analysis showed that fin height and
spacing were especially critical. Adjusting these parameters
could alter temperatures within the enclosure by as much as
14 deg. C.
Coolit also proved that the chassis required more vents than
electronics engineers had originally been willing to allow.
When testing verified that the Coolit predictions were accurate to
within a few percent, electronics engineers capitulated, and the
chassis design was altered. Fortunately, Coolit identified the
requirement early in the design cycle, so venting changes could
be incorporated into the first prototype. If the problem had
been discovered later - after the prototype was built and
tested - it would have delayed the design schedule of the entire
project by months.
While Coolit can answer questions about thermal design,
Daat's support team can provide assistance in getting your
simulations up and running quickly. Throughout the project,
Honeywell engineers had ready access to expert advice from
Daat's support team. Daat even provided help on a computer
problem unrelated to Coolit. When Honeywell was experiencing
repeated system crashes, Daat identified the driver for a high
performance graphics board as the culprit. The personalized
support provided by Daat saved Honeywell time and money.
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