Fluid-Thermal Analysis of an Inverter with Air Cooling

R. V. Arimilli[1], A. H. Nejad[1], K. Ekici[1]
[1]The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Published in 2013

A new simple air-cooled inverter design is numerically investigated using COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The thermal-fluid analysis is based on a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model in which the flow field is assumed to be laminar. A rigorous mesh convergence was performed to ensure that the overall energy balance error is within engineering accuracy while the computational cost is kept within reasonable limits. Three different configurations for the 55-kW inverter (with SiC carbide power electronic devices) design were considered. Our initial findings indicate that this new design offers good cooling characteristics. Additionally, the flow rate, pressure drop and blower power requirements are significantly lower relative to turbulent flow configurations.