When converting an electric power by an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module, the problem which is the heat generation in the IGBT module should be prudently considered in the design process. As an engineer reviews the cooling performance of power semi-conductor devices only at the component level, it is difficult to predict the reduction of airflow rates in the heat sink when power semi-conductor devices including the heat sink are integrated into the power conversion system. As the porous media model is adopted in the IGBT stack of the PCS, the problem that the meshes are heavily concentrated in the IGBT module including the heat sink, air, and IGBT/diode chips can be evaded and the airflow rate which is reflected in the effect of flow resistance by all interior structures including the IGBT module is calculated. For the outdoor type PCS, the hotspot temperature on the heat sink of the simulation and experiment is 99.3 and 101.6 Celsius, respectively. The proposed numerical simulation model considerably accurately predicts the hotspot temperature on the heat sink and can earn benefits in terms of efforts of mesh generation and computation time.

Volume Subject Area:
Thermal Management
Topics:
Porous materials, Power conversion systems, Simulation models, Thermofluids, Heat sinks, Air flow, Power semiconductor devices, Temperature, Computation, Computer simulation, Cooling, Design, Electricity (Physics), Engineers, Flow (Dynamics), Gates (Closures), Heat, Mesh generation, Simulation, Transistors
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