Performance Evaluation and Optimization of Series Flow Channel Water-Cooled Plate for IGBT Modules

The stability in the operation of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules plays a crucial role in wind power generation. It is essential to improve the thermal performance of the heat sink of IGBT modules in wind power converters and reduce the power consumption of liquid cooling systems, in order to optimize the heat dissipation of IGBT modules in wind power converters. In this paper, a simulation model of the liquid-cooled heat sink of the IGBT module is established and the performance of three different series flow channel structures is compared by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Moreover, based on the orthogonal test design, the three factors (channel width, channel height, and cold plate wall thickness) affecting the performance of the water-cooled plate were ranked and optimized. The results show that the water-cooled plate with double-helical-type flow channel structure has the best comprehensive performance. In addition, for the double-helical-type structure, the optimal combination of channel structure parameters about channel width, channel height, and cold plate wall thickness is obtained. After optimization, the maximum IGBT temperature, thermal resistance, and pressure drop of the cold plate are reduced by 3.13%, 5.78%, and 18.87%, respectively, compared with the double-S structure in parameter case one. The proposed methods and results are expected to provide theoretical guidance for the thermal management of IGBT modules in wind power converters.