Title

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

Authors

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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