Research on pumped two-phase single-sided cold plate of IGBT for rail transit applications

Abstract The use of pumped two-phase cooling to improve the thermal management of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) in rail transportation is a novel cooling technology. An experimental investigation on pumped two-phase cold plate of IGBT used in HXD1C locomotives was conducted at a mass flow rate of 0.1 kg/s–0.29 kg/s and a heat flux of 6.2 W/cm2, with R245fa as the working fluid. The experimental results showed that the base temperature nonuniformity can be controlled within 2.2 °C at flow rates of 0.14 kg/s and 0.19 kg/s, which is of great benefit to the reliability of IGBT. Based on well known correlations for saturated flow boiling in tubes, an analytical model was developed and compared with the experimental data. The model could predict the base temperature data within an error band of ±3 °C, as well as capture the trend of base temperature as a function of vapour quality and mass flow rate. The performance of the pumped two-phase cold plate of IGBT could be further improved with the aid of the developed model.