Improve Safety and Air Quality in Europe’s Largest Underground Car Park

Thursday, December 13, 2018 by Electromechanical Team

Variable Speed Drives Car Park Parker Hannifin EMDE The renewal of the entire ventilation system in the underground car park serving the largest European business district, was not limited to the simple replacement of filters and some mechanical components. This operation involved a vast project requiring advanced technical expertise, particularly in terms of defining and selecting drive solutions and supporting their integration, installation and commissioning.

The objective of the drive systems for the variation of ventilation speed was two-fold. Firstly, it was a question of ensuring the effective evacuation of exhaust gases. Then, secondly, achieving much faster removal of smoke in the event of a fire. The previously installed system had become obsolete because it was only equipped with two-speed motors without drives.

Variable Speed Drives Car Park Parker Hannifin EMDE Parker worked with EDF and Inov Industrie on the project. The company was selected for its technical abilities with respect to drive systems, but perhaps more importantly, for its "know how" in the control of energy consumption/optimisation of energy efficiency. The project presented multiple challenges that had to be overcome. First, the project concerned the most extensive car park in Europe incorporating 22,000 spaces, spread over sixteen different sites. Then, due to the underground location of the car parks, below the towers of La Defense at a complex, major road junction, there were numerous access constraints. To this was added the problem of dimensions: the systems selected had to fit in existing cabinets and be adapted to the protocol already in place.

Enhanced performances at your fingertips

All of the disassembled components being replaced had to be removed and recycled. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the fire safety system needed to allow the forced operation of the drives at maximum speed in order to reliably evacuate fumes in the shortest possible time. For safety, the new systems also needed to be equipped with an automatic restart and be directly connected to the emergency fire services.

The nature of the project meant that work had to be completed quickly and efficiently under intense time pressure. The scale of the project meant that a total of 60 drives with power ratings from 5.5kW to 180kW had to be commissioned in a very short space of time. Inov Industrie, with its 20-year working relationship with Parker, turned to the motion and control specialist, opting to specify units from the company’s AC10 compact drive range.

Simple and reliable motor control

The suitability of the AC10 range for this significant and challenging project was enhanced due to some new features such as fire mode input/output and its wide range of power ratings - all in a compact package. The AC10 range is characterised by its simplicity of installation, setup, and commissioning, thanks in particular to a fast parameterization. With its enhanced functionality, the AC10 drive is able to control asynchronous motors incorporating both simple and complex types of application such as pressure and flow control. The ‘small sequential’ function (sequencing on and off) avoids the need for an additional PLC. It is also possible to obtain information relating to system power consumption and other parameters such as the occurrence of dirty filters.

Francis Scharwatt Parker Hannifin France Article contributed by Francis Scharwatt, sales engineer, Parker Hannifin France