Dielectric Fluids for the Direct Forced Convection Cooling of Power Electronics

Brian Kelly, Gilberto Moreno, Steve Meyers, Sreekant Narumanchi, Yogendra Joshi, Samuel Graham

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

6 Scopus Citations

Abstract

The future of electrification of vehicles and other systems will require the creation of high-power density power electronics with low junction-to-fluid thermal resistance cooling solutions. One way to create this solution is to move high-heat-flux liquid cooling (single- or two-phase) as close to the power electronics components as possible. One novel approach involves submersion in dielectric fluids as the cooling solution. We first provide the range of fluid properties and develop a figure of merit (FOM) to aid in dielectric fluid selection. Next, we perform computational fluid dynamics/heat transfer (CFD/HT) modeling using single-phase cooling (submerged jet impingement on an enhanced surface) to validate the dielectric fluid FOM. Results of the study show that the developed FOM is a good representation of the performance of the fluids when compared to the results of the CFD/HT analysis. Both FOM and the CFD/HT analysis show that based on pure thermohydraulic considerations, several commercially available fluids present higher performance, on the order of 5% of water. Finally, the FOM can be used to quickly assess the thermohydraulic performance of a dielectric fluid, as well as the secondary application-specific properties such as boiling point, saturation pressure, flash point, and global warming potential, thereby allowing for fluid candidates to be readily compared.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages308-313
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event20th InterSociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, ITherm 2021 - Virtual, San Diego, United States
Duration: 1 Jun 20214 Jun 2021

Conference

Conference20th InterSociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, ITherm 2021
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, San Diego
Period1/06/214/06/21

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
©2021 IEEE

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-5400-78446

Keywords

  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Dielectric fluids
  • Electronics cooling
  • Heat transfer
  • Power electronics
  • Thermal management

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