How to build a ducted cold air supply in CoolSim with the duct designer: main ducts, connecting ducts, diffusers, smart length and cloning.
This demonstration builds a ducted cold air supply for a non-raised-floor data hall using the CoolSim duct designer. The room already contains rack rows and computer room air conditioner (CRAC) units, placed with the cloning tool.
What the video shows
- Working from the CRAC units toward the racks.
- Main duct: dragging a duct into the room, opening the duct designer from the right-click menu, setting its orientation parallel to the Z axis, positioning it directly above the CRAC units and enlarging it to 3 ft by 3 ft.
- Smart length: moving the duct to one end of the room and selecting smart length, which extends it until it meets a wall or another object such as a block.
- Connecting ducts: adding a subduct at the CRAC location, making its length shorter than needed, then selecting the connecting duct button so the duct finds what it is attached to. This is repeated for each CRAC unit, and the same steps build the main duct on the other side of the room.
- Branch ducts: adding a 2 ft by 2 ft subduct off a main duct, joining it to the other side with smart length, and adding diffusers to its underside. The presenter notes that a subduct built off the main system cannot be cloned.
- Cloneable branch: building a new duct from scratch, joining it to a main duct with a connecting duct, adding diffusers (position set as a percent of open area), and cloning it with a chosen offset. The demo makes five copies at a 12 ft offset.
- Submitting the simulation and getting results.