Thermal Management of Power Inverter Modules at High Fluxes via Two-Phase Spray Cooling

    Authors

    H. Bostanci; D. Van Ee; B. A. Saarloos; D. P. Rini;L. C. Chow

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    IEEE Trans. Compon. Pack. Manuf. Technol.

    Keywords

    Hybrid vehicle; insulated gate bipolar transistors; power electronics; spray cooling; thermal management; OF-THE-ART; HEAT-TRANSFER; Engineering, Manufacturing; Engineering, Electrical & Electronic; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    A spray cooling system was developed and tested for thermal management of power inverter modules utilized in automotive applications. The system featured an array of 1 x 2 pressure atomized nozzles that used 88 degrees C boiling point antifreeze coolant with 0.15-l/min.cm(2) liquid flow rate and 145-kPa pressure drop. A 2-cm(2) simulated device, having two kinds of enhanced spray surface with microscale structures, reached up to 400-W/cm(2) heat flux with as low as 14 degrees C surface superheat. These experimental results demonstrated the capability of greatly reducing the overall thermal resistance of the inverter modules that are commonly cooled with single-phase convective systems. The long-term reliability of the spray cooling was assessed with 2000 h of testing time. Performance of the presented system proved the spray cooling of power electronics as an attractive option that enables high power densities while maintaining acceptable and uniform device temperatures. In addition, due to the use of high temperature coolant at low flow rates, the spray cooling offers a compact and efficient system design.

    Journal Title

    Ieee Transactions on Components Packaging and Manufacturing Technology

    Volume

    2

    Issue/Number

    9

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    1480

    Last Page

    1485

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000308464200010

    ISSN

    2156-3950

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