Three-dimensional analysis of airflow and temperature in a thyristor valve hall

A numerical analysis is performed for the three-dimensional, turbulent flow of air in a thyristor valve hall located at the Dorsey Converter Station, owned and operated by Manitoba Hydra. The goal of this analysis was to determine the configurations that result in increased air-side cooling effectiveness in the valve hall. Slight modifications are made to the actual valve hall geometry in order to decrease the computational effort. These modifications allow for the use of symmetry planes which decrease the size of the computational domain used while not significantly altering the fidelity of the model to the application. The governing equations are solved using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code CFX-5. This computer code uses a finite volume method of solution and is based on a finite element approach for representing the geometry. The effects of inlet and outlet opening geometry, inlet air mass flow rate, and inlet air angle on the thermal performance for the air-side cooling of the thyristor valve hall geometry are examined. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...