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Light Up The World

Thursday, January 10, 2008
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Light Up The World

Light Up The World

From Vegas to Brunei, a small town company is offering big time results

By Bob Cramblitt

Daktronics at Heinz Field, the Pittsburgh Steelers stadium

A Daktronics display in Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.
In Brookings, South Dakota, a town of about 19,000 people, big things are happening; things that touch millions of people in nearly 100 countries, from Liechtenstein to China to Brunei.

Brookings is the home of Daktronics, one of the world’s largest suppliers of electronic scoreboards, computer-programmable displays, digital billboards, and large-screen video displays and control systems.

Out of its 500,000 square-foot manufacturing and office facilities come the displays that show sports fans scores and video replays, advertise new offerings for all types of businesses, tout the stars appearing in Vegas nightspots and help drivers navigate highway systems.

In the case of the new Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino in Macau, China, a Daktronics display is a spectacular calling card that heralds the excitement to be found inside.


Behind The Lights

Daktronics products require integration of complex multiple displays showing real-time information, graphics, animation and video. They have to be built to withstand all types of weather, to dissipate heat generated by light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and look good even when directly opposite an unforgiving sun.

The tool that helps Daktronics analyze these complex factors early in the design process is CFdesign upfront CFD software from Blue Ridge Numerics. Over the course of three years, CFdesign software has become an integral part of Daktronics’ product development workflow, giving the company a picture of how designs will perform before major commitments of time and resources are made.

“We use CFdesign in order to thoroughly understand complex electronics cooling situations and make comparisons among different designs before we start to build,” says Shannon Mutschelknaus, thermal product development engineer at Daktronics.

Benefits Vs. Cost Upfront

A CFdesign flow analysis of the inside of a Daktronics display

A CFdesign flow analysis of the inside of a Daktronics display. The supply and return from this unit are connected to a packaged air conditioning system.
A typical project at Daktronics starts with a Pro/ENGINEER (Pro/E) model of the display. Native geometry from Pro/E is used by CFdesign to create the analysis model, eliminating the time-consuming translation process required for traditional CFD.

“The CAD/CFD integration is very important to us,” says Mutschelknaus. “We want to spend our time exploring design options, not preparing files for CFD.”

CFdesign is opened directly in Pro/E using controls within the CAD software’s interface. Flow volume, volumetric boundary conditions, and material properties are assigned automatically. After that, all that is left is selecting flow and heat-transfer analysis options. CFdesign automatically generates the optimal mesh and provides access to initial simulation results within minutes.

For less demanding designs, Daktronics runs an airflow/ventilation analysis to compare different design options and optimize the airflow through the system. For designs incorporating complex thermal cooling systems, Mutschelknaus and his colleagues, Sunil Gaddam and Kurt Peters, run natural convection and airflow analyses. Associative data between CFdesign and Pro/E makes it easy to run a simulation, do a 3-D design review, make appropriate design changes, and see the impact of those changes in minutes.

A natural convection, solar and electrical heating analysis generated by CFdesign software

A natural convection, solar and electrical heating analysis generated by CFdesign software for a small section of a Daktronics display system.

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“We use CFdesign in the early stages of the design to compare benefits versus cost for different combinations of components, fans, heat sinks, enclosures and materials,” says Mutschelknaus. “With this information, we can narrow our options to two or three different designs that we’ll physically prototype.”

New solar loading functionality in CFdesign has also played a key role in Daktronics’ design work. Solar loading depicts radiation through transparent media and even shows shadowing based on the sun’s movement.

Set-up is simple: specify the time of year, time of day, and location on the globe using a database within CFdesign or by assigning specific latitude/longitude coordinates, and click the mouse to see the simulation.

“Time-stepped solar simulation has enabled us to optimize display contrast by varying sizes and shapes of shading louvers on the display face,” says Mutschelknaus

Widespread impact

According to Mutschelknaus, nearly every project at Daktronics benefits from moving CFD upfront in the design process.

“We’ve been able to make key improvements such as fan hoods with lower pressure losses, more efficient combinations of fans, tighter pixel pitches for outdoor use, improved display contrast, and reduced operating temperatures of electrical components. We’ve even been able to design some displays without ventilation fans.”

The Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino in Macau, China.

An animated Daktronics display provides a spectacular calling card for the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino in Macau, China.
Although Mutschelknaus acknowledges that upfront CFD has probably saved Daktronics substantial time and money, his focus is on the greater opportunities it has opened up.

“It has helped us engineer higher-quality products that are superior to our competition, break down existing design barriers, and define realistic expectations of a product earlier in the design process.”

At its core, breaking down barriers and defining realistic expectations are what good design is all about. At Daktronics, that translates into everything from the utilitarian football scoreboard at a proud Texas high school to the spectacular light show adorning the facade of the Grand Lisboa in China.

Bob Cramblitt is a technology writer who focuses on new developments and processes that make a definitive difference in how we work and live.

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