Experimental study and numerical simulation of the interior flow in a telecommunications cabinet

The sector of information and communication technologies, especially telecommunications, has grown in a relentless way, leading to an increase in the number of necessary infrastructure to ensure the geographical coverage of the service, having the outdoor telecommunications cabinets (OTC) been an increasingly preferred choice of this type of infrastructure. These cabinets need cooling systems to maintain interior temperatures between desired values, but an effective cooling depends directly on the air flow inside. This paper includes the experimental results of the internal flow and heat transfer in a model a of real OTC, in order to characterize its thermal behavior. The internal air flow is visualized through experimental methods and compared with numerical predictions. The flow occurs mainly in turbulent regime, possessing greater magnitude on the back area of the OTC, where also exist some recirculation zones that can difficult an effective cooling. The results allow to conclude that forced ventilation is an effective method of OTC cooling, combined with low energy consumption. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.