Design Considerations Through Study of Thermal Behaviour of Smart Poles

This paper demonstrates implementation of virtual prototyping approach in early stage of design concept evaluation. Examined structure is of contemporary smart pole design with integrated telecommunication equipment. The combination of integrated design (inside poles) and contemporary electronic equipment thermal management leads to the need of careful examination of thermal behaviour of entire structure. Most important issue is connected to the problem how to transfer generated heat to the environment. Presented study is performed through multiphysics analyses – thermal CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) – using virtual prototyping techniques to assess several design variants performance parameters. Used virtual prototypes enable to view in detail heat transfer process and to reach a better solution for cooling components placement. Each design parameter is assessed and further recommendations are formed for design improvement. Final design uses fans placed on the top of the pole structure leading to allowable thermal loads over electronic equipment.