An inverter in a typical traction motor drive can have more than 1kW in heat losses. There are many design and optimization decisions for the power converter directly relating to the design and control of the power electronics. Decisions include switch chemistry, switching speed, and control techniques. Additionally, there are many design and optimization decisions to be made with regards to the cooling mechanisms, for a liquid cooled heatsink, such as, flow rate and liquid temperature. There is potential to generate large amounts of data through trial and error or end users can use Design of Experiments, DOE, to drive an intelligent dataset for design optimization. A multi-domain solution, combining a power electronics solver and thermal CFD can help designers understand how their inverter will generate heat and how to dissipate that heat to ensure reliable operation of their electronics. Engineers can further enhance their design optimization by using automated design exploration to easily define run matrices to vary key parameters and look for strong correlation to achieve their design goals. The workflow presented is applicable to any type of power converter that requires cooling, the case study for the presentation will be the main inverter in an EV traction application.
This site uses cookies that enable us to make improvements, provide relevant content, and for analytics purposes. For more details, see our Cookie Policy. By clicking Accept, you consent to our use of cookies.