Evaluation of climatic vibration testing on plastic waterproof enclosure for electronic equipment using ANSYS® workbench

Designing and testing of waterproof enclosure for electronic equipment involves significant amount of time and resources. This paper concentrates on electronic equipment used for maritime application. Typical waterproof test perform is based on the IEC 60529 standards and is insufficient to determine its reliability. Since, these enclosures were subjected to environmental stress such as heat and vibration and there is a need to understand how these affect the waterproof performance. Simulation using ANSYS workbench software was performed to comprehend the effect of various parameters of accelerated testing performed on these waterproof enclosures. Experiments were performed to examine the correlation with simulation results. The results confirmed that accelerated testing with random vibration at cold temperature causes greatest stress and causes degradation to adhesive bonds and hence affect the waterproof performance.