Comparison of Heat-Pipe Cooling System Design Processes in Railway Propulsion Inverter Considering Power Module Reliability

June-Seok Lee and Ui-Min Choi
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June-Seok Lee: Propulsion System Research Team, Korea Railroad Research Institute, 176, Cheoldo Bangmulgwan-ro, Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do 16105, Korea
Ui-Min Choi: Department of Electronic and IT Media Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-20

Abstract: In this paper, the effect of the heat-pipe cooling system design processes on the reliability of the power module in a railway propulsion inverter was investigated. The existing design processes for the heat-pipe cooling system guarantee that the junction temperature of power devices does not exceed the maximum allowable junction temperature when the railway propulsion inverter operates under its mission profile; therefore, each step of the design process was reviewed to analyze the effect of the heat-pipe cooling system. Based on the processes, in the calculation for the required thermal resistance of the heat-pipe cooling system, two difference losses were considered with the thermal resistances of the insulated gate bipolar mode transistor (IGBT) module and the thermal grease at an interface between the baseplate of IGBT module and heat-pipe cooling system. The control scheme and mission profile of the train were taken into account to calculate the power losses. Then, the designed heat-pipe cooling systems were compared in terms of the size and weight. In addition, the junction temperatures and lifetimes of the power module with heat-pipe cooling systems designed by different power losses were estimated and compared. Finally, guidelines for a heat-pipe system cooling design are proposed.

Keywords: reliability; lifetime; IGBT module; heat-pipe system; railway; propulsion inverter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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