Case Study: Trane Commercial achieves improved energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact with ANSYS CFX

HVAC Manufacturer Uses CFX To Improve Energy Efficiency, Reduce Environmental Impact

Trane Commercial, a global supplier of indoor comfort systems, needed to improve the energy efficiency and environmental performance of refrigerant‑cooled hermetic motors used in water‑ and air‑cooled chillers. Engineers had to balance coolant cooling against windage losses, eliminate hot spots, reduce vibration and noise, and minimize refrigerant emissions and service interventions. To address these challenges, Trane Commercial used ANSYS CFX computational fluid dynamics software to simulate coupled heat transfer and refrigerant flow in high‑power induction motors.

Using ANSYS CFX, Trane Commercial developed a Virtual Laboratory to run whole‑system steady and transient simulations, quantify mass flow and temperature distributions, calculate forces and torques, and track oil circulation. The ANSYS‑based analyses enabled multi‑objective optimization and guided diffuser and compressor design changes, helping eliminate unsteady flow instabilities, predict and remove hot spots, improve lubrication and extend service intervals, reduce noise and refrigerant emissions, and ultimately raise energy efficiency and product reliability — with measurable outputs (mass flow rates, temperature fields, force/torque values, oil circulation rates) driving design decisions.

Trane Commercial