Optimizing Thermal Chamber Performance Using Finite Element Analysis

摘要

Reducing product development cycle time and producing products in the most efficient manner are always the goals of today's competitive cable companies. Each step of the development process, including testing, must be scrutinized to continuously improve it to provide the best possible product while meeting the demanding delivery expectations in the cable industry. To reduce cable temperature cycling time and improve thermal chamber efficiency, Corning Cable Systems (CCS) evaluates their thermal chamber performance. As part of that effort, sophisticated analytical techniques and testing are employed to examine the effects of improvements and modifications to the chambers. Among these is finite element analyses, techniques commonly used in industries such as aerospace, automotive and nuclear to evaluate the reliability of new products. This paper presents finite element analyses used to examine the effect of floor insulation and floor modifications on the thermal chamber performance. Thermal chambers used for temperature cycling cable reels generally have well insulated ceilings and walls mounted to concrete floors which comprise the enclosure. Since the floors must carry the reel weight, specially designed stainless steel insulated chamber floors are extremely expensive. Concrete slabs are acceptable alternatives to the stainless steel floor provided they are thermally isolated from the earth. Without thermal isolation, thermal cycle times were shown to be up to 60% longer for a fully loaded chamber. With proper insulation on economical concrete floors, acceptable cycle times are achievable. Additional benefit can be obtained by using the more expensive stainless steel floor provided the additional cost can be justified.