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Design of the airflow passage structure for improving the thermal performance of the power conversion system

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Abstract

In order to operate a Power conversion system (PCS) reliably, which is used for solar or wind power generation and energy storage systems, a design engineer of a PCS must evaluate that the junction temperature of power semiconductor devices, such as an Insulatedgate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module, meets the design criteria in the cooling design stage. An engineer must have evaluation procedure to design the airflow passage structure of a PCS in a way that the heat generated from inside of the system can be effectively exhausted externally. This study investigated the thermal performance of a PCS for four different airflow passage structures using the airflow rate of the heat sink attached to the IGBT module as an evaluation index. Out of the suggested airflow passage structures, the structure using the upper supply-lower exhaust type without the cooling fan for the reactor, which forms the air curtain around the airflow passage guide of the IGBT module and the louver of the maintenance door, has been found to perform the best thermal performance. In this design, the airflow rate of the heat sink was approximately 14 % larger than the required rate, with the junction temperature of the IGBT module of 132.2 °C, which satisfied the cooling design criteria. When the ventilation area of the supply is increased by approximately 2.3 times and the thickness of the filter reduced by 10 mm, the airflow rate of the heat sink can reach up to 700.4 m3hr-1, and in this case, the design criteria of the IGBT module can be satisfied even in an overload condition of 106.7 % of the rated load.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Power & Industrial R&D Center, HYOSUNG Corporation, Anyang, 14080, Korea

    ChangWoo Han & SeungBoong Jeong

  2. Department of Mechanical and Information Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul, 02504, Korea

    MyungDo Oh

Authors
  1. ChangWoo Han
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  2. SeungBoong Jeong
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  3. MyungDo Oh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to MyungDo Oh.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Joon Ahn

Chang-Woo Han received the B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 2004, 2006, and 2016, respectively. He joined HYOSUNG Corporation since 2007 and is currently a Principal Researcher for HYOSUNG Corporation. His research interests include the cooling design and thermofluid simulation in the power electronic systems such as a PCS, HVDC, and STATCOM.

Seung-Boong Jeong received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 1999 and 2001, respectively. He is currently a Chief Researcher for Hyosung Corporation. He is currently the technology leader of the thermo-fluid technology team of the Power and Industrial Systems R&D Center. His research interests include the thermal management of electrical machines and power electronics systems. Mr. Jeong is a member of the ASME.

Myung-Do Oh received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA, in 1985. He is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Information Engineering, University of Seoul, since 1996. His research activities and interests are in the areas of the thermal and environmental control in HVAC systems and cleanroom. Dr. Oh has been Korean representative in the Council of Delegates of International Confederation of Contamination Control Societies (ICCCS) since 1995 and was the Chairman of ICCCS in 2014. Dr. Oh is a member of the KSME.

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Han, C., Jeong, S. & Oh, M. Design of the airflow passage structure for improving the thermal performance of the power conversion system. J Mech Sci Technol 32, 1397–1406 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-0243-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-0243-4

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