Welcome to the Principle Cabinet Design training module for the DCS800, ABB DC Drives.

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After completing this module, you will be able to
• explain the importance of cooling
• describe typical cooling problems
• locate and dimension the air inlet and outlet holes
• understand air circulation inside the cabinet
• locate the components inside the cabinet
• take a harsh environment into consideration
• describe different heat exchanger types and locate information for dimensioning them

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• The efficiency of the ABB DC-Drives is excellent, typically greater 99 percent. Even so, when
large powers are at use, heat dissipation becomes significant.
• 19 kilowatts of heat dissipation is focused into a small area.
• All of the losses must be guided out of the cabinet or they start to increase drive temperature.

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Basically power losses are inherent in all electrical devices. Often they are very small in comparison
with usable power but they must be totaled from all existing devices.
• Auxiliary components mounted in a cabinet have power losses and have to be considered when
calculating total power losses.
• An example is shown in the data table for line reactors. Here, the magnetization and the copper
losses are decisive.
• The next example is the data table for an autotransformer. This device also has power losses.

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Here is an example to clarify the volume of heat. Dissipation heat of a module is equivalent to a
sauna stove.
• Some technical facts of a typical sauna:
• The volume of the sauna is about 14 cubic meters
• The power of the sauna stove is 9 kilowatts
• The temperature in the sauna increases to 80°C within 20 minutes
• The volume of the empty drive cabinet in this example is approximately 1 cubic meter.
• The packing density of modules is very high - therefore the losses per cabinet increase.
• The heat dissipation of one module is twice the number of a sauna stove.

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The meaning of cooling will be more important when components are placed in enclosed cabinets.
• A significant number of all the service calls are associated with cooling.
– Overheating causes component failures
– Typical components which suffer from high temperatures are boards, fans and capacitors.
– The temperatures of some boards are not dependent on the load of the drive.
• Even if there is not enough air available, the drive may run normally because the drive load is
typically not even close to nominal and the ambient temperature is lower than 40°C.
– However, the lifetime of some components is reduced because of overheating.
– Unexpected stops due to overheating.

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The most important issues in cabinet cooling should be discussed in this slide.
• Make sure that there is no air circulation inside the cabinet
• Ensure that there is no external air circulation
• Make sure that the air inlet and outlet are big enough and they are in the right place
• No back pressure from the air outlet is present
• Cooling for D6 and D7 modules is very efficient if hot air from the outlet is sent directly out of the
building or cooling system via an air duct.

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Air inlet and outlet holes are responsible for correct air flux in a cabinet.
• Make sure that they are big enough for the needed air flux
– Holes in the cabinet must be at least the same the size of the holes in the drive module. If the
air inlet hole in the cabinet is smaller than the air inlet hole in the drive module, then there is
air resistance which reduces air flux. The same applies to the air outlet holes.
• The easier the air route out, the smaller the hole needed.
– The aim is never to have smaller cabinet holes than the drive inlet and outlet holes
– The higher the air volume, the bigger the effect of the air route
• In the example shown on the right hand side, the problem is that the air inlet and outlet are too
small and the cabinet could then overheat!
• The picture on the bottom left side shows the air outlet of a D5 converter module. The picture
beside it shows a D6 module with an air inlet on the left, right and bottom sides.
• The conclusion is, that it is necessary that the inlet and outlet holes fit the needed airflow!

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The placement of the inlet holes is very important for a cabinet.
• Air inlet holes must be in the right place and large enough for the needed airflow.
• These air inlet holes are used for cooling the components inside the cabinet. They are placed on
the bottom side of the doors.
• There must be enough space, approximately 10-20 centimeters, between the door hole and the
components to allow cold air to get everywhere.

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The next issue is the air flow cross-section of a cabinet. The background is that the needed airflow
between inlet and outlet holes is existing.
• Make sure that the air flow cross-section inside the cabinet is big enough to have adequate
airflow.
• An additional cover must be added to keep the finger protection class
• For example, in the standard "Rittal cabinet" the roof must be lifted
• Air inlet holes must be big enough

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Cabinets usually include auxiliary equipment which is used for the complete drive system.
• Remember that auxiliary parts may also have significant losses and need cooling. Auxiliary
equipment could be line reactors, air circuit breakers, fuses or something else.
• Sometimes a separate cooling fan for the auxiliary equipment may be needed.
• Note that the highest temperature is always on the top of the cabinet

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Air circulation inside the cabinet must be correct.
• If air from the drive air outlet circulates back to the drive air inlet, the drive cooling suffers. This
resembles a cycle current!
• For the drive, the ambient temperature is the same as the temperature of the cooling air in the air
inlet of the drive.
• Also protect the auxiliary equipment from warm air circulation.
• General rules:
– Air inlet or outlet filters increase internal air circulation
– Correct airflow must be checked by heat-run-tests which are required for CE marking

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The ways to prevent air circulation inside the cabinet including air baffles and cooling fans are
discussed in this slide
• Air baffles are a cheap and 100% reliable solution. The idea is to separate the inlet and outlet air
so that the hot air does not mix with the cold air.
• Extra cooling fans are another alternative but they cost money, require a power supply, may fail,
and consume energy but work as well.
• All the air that goes into the drive module must be guided directly out from the cabinet.
• Another option is to mount the module near the door and guide the air inlet and outlet directly
outside the cabinet. Thus, the air cannot circulate inside the cabinet back to the module air inlet.

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How to prevent internal air circulation?
• If there is a big cabinet system with several converters in it, e.g. an armature converter and a
field converter, separator walls between each converter section are recommended. The
separator walls are always needed to prevent air circulation from one cabinet to another.
• The hot air has to be guided directly out of the cabinet.
• Air may start to circulate if the modules in the nearby cabinets are different sizes and their
cooling fan powers are different. The fan of the large module may cause overpressure at the
upper level of the cabinet. The fan of the small module has to fight against that overpressure.
• Here you can see an example of a good installation:
– First
the separator wall from top to bottom and second an air baffle which prevents the hot air
from circulating back to the air inlet of the module

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Air circulation outside the cabinet is responsible for the temperature in the cabinet.
• An appropriate design for the air outlet is needed to stop external air circulation.
• To stop external air circulation, the air outlet has to be designed so that the hot air flow does not
circulate back to the air inlet of the cabinet.
• In case the air outlet is designed to be on the cabinet door, the hot air flow should not be guided
downwards.
• All green directions in the picture for the hot air flow are ok.

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• Always try to locate the components with high losses in a way so they do not heat each other or
other equipment (e.g. field converter, line reactor, transformers).
• Sometimes the high loss components have to be mounted at the bottom. In that case, it may be
better to locate them in the back of the cabinet and bring the equipment above the filter towards
the front of the cabinet. In this way it is possible to achieve a cooling "duct" directly upwards and
the components above the high loss components are not heated up.

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Often there are bad environments which have to be considered for cabinet design.
• Air inlet filters are needed if there is dust. A greater capacity is needed and the filters have to be
cleaned regularly. Basically, filters cause less airflow, so extra fans are needed!
• Sometimes a completely enclosed design is needed.
– This protects against dust and corrosive gases
– It may require heat exchangers or air conditioners

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In conclusion, here are some solutions for typical cooling problems.
• Air circulation inside the cabinet could be avoided by adding air baffles or extra cooling fans
• Air inlets or outlets that are too small could be solved by changing the cabinet design. See the
hardware cabinet assembly manuals!
• Air inlets or outlets in the wrong place could also be fixed by changing the cabinet design
• If equipment inside the cabinet heats up other equipment, all components have to be located in a
way that the heat is guided out without heating other components
• If additional equipment is running too hot, the air flow could be improved for auxiliary equipment,
e.g. by using a cooling fan or by making air inlet or outlet holes bigger
• Sometimes air inlet or outlet filters are clogged. In this case larger filters plus larger extra fans
plus simple filter cleaning could help. Note, filters must be cleaned regularly.
• If the ambient temperature is too hot, maybe air conditioning is needed!

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Heat exchangers enable closed air circulation inside the cabinet and make for easier construction of
high enclosure class cabinets.
Enclosure class IP54 can be made with filters also, but then corrosive gases can still enter the
cabinet
Note: Heat exchangers cannot be used for air filtering. No air filters are needed and filter exchange
does not apply.

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Pure air to air heat exchangers without a compressor cannot cool down below the ambient
temperature. They are only used for creating a better enclosure class.
The maximum ambient temperature can be 55°C (e.g. for a Rittal cabinet) when using an air to air
heat exchanger with a compressor.
Remember that there is a risk of water condensation if the difference in temperature is more than 5
°C.
Air conditioners always generate condensed water which must be channeled out.
In “Rittal cabinets”, air to liquid heat exchangers can be used at an ambient temperature of up to a
70°C.
When using air to liquid heat exchangers, the colder the liquid is, the better the cooling effect will be.
Air to liquid heat exchangers are based on external liquid cooling, where heat dissipation is
transferred from the internal air of the cabinet to external liquid circulation instead of external air.

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The next topic is the dimensioning of heat exchangers.
• Choose the heat exchanger according to the actual load and losses.
– Drivelosses given in the catalogue and manual are for the full load. In some cases the
dimensioning of drives is oversized, for example because of short overload requirements.
The heat exchanger capacity should be dimensioned according to continuous load to avoid
unnecessary over dimensioning.
– Losses are roughly proportional to the load. A general principle is that if the continuous load is
50% of the rated load, the losses will be 50% of the value stated in the catalog.
– Losses are calculated based on rated motor current and not on rated converter current.
• Also take into consideration the losses from auxiliary equipment, for example transformers, line
reactors and so on.
• The cabinet also dissipates some heat through its walls if there is a difference between the
ambient and cabinet temperatures.

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• The nominal cooling power of the air/air cooling units is based on the same temperature inside
and outside the cabinet.
• Any temperature difference will change the cooling capacity.
• The maximum outside operating temperature is 55°C.
• The cooler air volume should be the same or slightly larger than the air volume of the drive
cooling fan.

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• This figure shows how to read the cooling power curves for the heat exchanger.
• The cooling power varies as a function of the ambient temperature and the internal temperature
of the cabinet.
• If the internal temperature is higher than the ambient temperature, the cooling power is bigger
than the nominal.
• However, if the cooling unit has to cool down the inside of the cabinet below the ambient
temperature, the cooling power is reduced from the nominal.

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To dimension the heat exchanger, Rittal, for example, has a calculation program available called
"Therm".
• It is a 30 day trial version which can be downloaded from the Rittal webpage
• The software shows the amount of radiated heat and an estimation of losses
• It cannot be used for systems with several heat exchangers

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Key points of this module are:
• Typical losses of a DC drive,
• The meaning of cabinet cooling,
• Needed air flow in a cabinet and
• The usability of heat exchangers.

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