Preliminary Design of a Water Cooled Avionics Cooling Rack

Military electronics are frequently operated in excessively confined spaces aboard ships and aircraft. This limited space impacts significantly on the space available for cooling equipment. The optimal solution is the development of one universal, modular rack for shipboard and aviation use. With a modular design, upgrades to equipment could also be accompanied by an upgrade to the cooling rack itself with very little additional cost or difficulty. A water cooled avionics rack can provide sufficient cooling for any piece or combination of avionics equipment if enough water flow paths are used, the water is at the appropriate temperature and the water is properly distributed within the passages. To determine if the cooling medium, water is properly distributed within a modular cooling rack, an analysis of the flow and pressure distribution of the coolant is required. This thesis presents a computer code that has been developed as an initial step in the total design of a modular cooling rack for avionics equipment. In itself, the code details a specific design technique and allows for the determination of whether a proposed configuration, including source location, characteristics of the cooling water, and the size and shape of the proposed flow passages will indeed provide a proper distribution of the coolant.