CN-117135873-B - Thermal management system for power converter

Abstract

A power converter assembly includes a housing, a cold plate in the housing, and a set of power converter components on the cold plate. The cold plate is configured to receive a coolant. A first medium in the housing surrounds the cold plate and the component. An expandable heat transfer structure is attached to one of the cold plate and the housing.

Inventors

• Sanjay Vijayaragawan
• WANG LIBING
• XIONG HAN
• Jin Kanghe
• PAN DI
• Mark Edward Damm
• Rajib Data
• Alan Creta Xin

Assignees

• 通用电气公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20230525

Priority Date

20220526

Claims (20)

1. 1. A power converter assembly, comprising: A housing; a cold plate in the housing, wherein the cold plate is configured to receive a coolant; A set of power converter components on the cold plate; a first medium surrounding the cold plate and the component in the housing, and An expandable heat transfer structure attached to one of the cold plate and the housing.
2. 2. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the expandable heat transfer structure is attached to the cold plate.
3. 3. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the first medium is a liquid or a pressurized gas that provides a dielectric resistance.
4. 4. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the first medium is oil.
5. 5. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the expandable heat transfer structure comprises a conductive material configured to transfer heat to the one of the cold plate and the housing.
6. 6. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the expandable heat transfer structure has an expandable surface area.
7. 7. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the expandable heat transfer structure is additively manufactured.
8. 8. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the expandable heat transfer structure is filled with a gas.
9. 9. The power converter assembly of claim 8, wherein the first medium is a liquid that provides a dielectric resistance.
10. 10. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein at least some of the components are covered with a solid insulating material.
11. 11. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the cold plate is a first cold plate and the power converter assembly further comprises a second cold plate.
12. 12. The power converter assembly of claim 11, wherein the first cold plate and the second cold plate are configured such that the first cold plate is upstream relative to the second cold plate.
13. 13. The power converter assembly of claim 12, wherein the components comprise a first set of components and a second set of components, wherein the first set of components is located on the first cold plate and the second set of components is located on the second cold plate.
14. 14. The power converter assembly of claim 13, wherein the first component set is configured to generate more heat than the second component set.
15. 15. The power converter assembly of claim 13, wherein the first component set comprises a high power switch module.
16. 16. The power converter assembly of claim 15, wherein the high power switch module comprises at least one of a MOSFET, an IGBT, and a gate driver.
17. 17. The power converter assembly of claim 13, wherein the second component set includes an auxiliary component.
18. 18. The power converter assembly of claim 17, wherein the auxiliary component comprises at least one of a capacitor, an inductor, a resistor, a bus bar, a control board, a gate driver board, and an interface board.
19. 19. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the first medium is sealed in the housing.
20. 20. The power converter assembly of claim 1, wherein the expandable heat transfer structure comprises at least one of a bellows structure, a gusset structure, and a gas spring structure.

Description

Thermal management system for power converter PRIORITY INFORMATION The present application claims priority from indian patent application number 202211030257, filed 5, 26 of 2022. Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a thermal management system for a power converter. Background Gas turbine engines typically include a turbine and a rotor assembly. Gas turbine engines, such as turbofan engines, may be used for aircraft propulsion. In the case of a turbofan engine, the rotor assembly may be configured as a fan assembly. The gas turbine engine may have a power converter coupled to a generator, for example. The power converter is used to convert electrical energy from one form to another. For example, a power converter may convert current between Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current (DC). The power converter may also modify a combination of voltage, current, and/or frequency from an input power to a resulting output power. In aircraft engines, the power converter is desirably lightweight, compact, integrated with a Thermal Management System (TMS) and operates at high altitudes, where low ambient pressure increases the risk of dielectric breakdown. Improvements to power converters would be welcome due to the desire for high power converters to be able to handle higher temperature operations (e.g., due to high voltage, high current heat loss, and/or engine thermal environments). Drawings A full and enabling disclosure of the present disclosure, including the best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended figures, in which: FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a gas turbine engine according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the gas turbine engine of FIG. 1, according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a power converter assembly according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure. Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the power converter assembly of fig. 3, according to an exemplary aspect of the disclosure. Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a power converter assembly according to an exemplary aspect of the disclosure. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an expandable heat transfer structure according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure. Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an expandable heat transfer structure according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure. Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of an expandable heat transfer structure according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure. Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an expandable heat transfer structure according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure. Detailed Description Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the disclosure, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. The detailed description uses numerical and alphabetic designations to refer to features in the drawings. Like or similar designations in the drawings and description have been used to refer to like or similar parts of the disclosure. The term "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any implementation described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. In addition, all embodiments described herein should be considered exemplary unless specifically identified otherwise. For the purposes of the following description, the terms "upper", "lower", "right", "left", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "transverse", "longitudinal" and derivatives thereof are relevant to the invention as it is oriented in the drawings. However, it is to be understood that the invention may assume various alternative variations, except where expressly specified to the contrary. It is also to be understood that the specific devices illustrated in the attached drawings and described in the following specification are simply exemplary embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, the particular dimensions and other physical characteristics related to the embodiments disclosed herein are not to be considered as limiting. As used herein, the terms "first," "second," and "third" are used interchangeably to distinguish one component from another, and are not intended to represent the location or importance of a single component. The terms "forward" and "aft" refer to relative positions within the gas turbine engine or carrier and refer to the normal operational attitude of the gas turbine engine or carrier. For example, with respect to a gas turbine engine, forward refers to a location closer to the engine inlet and aft refers to a location closer to the engine nozzle or exhaust. The terms "upstream" and "downstream" refer to relative directions with respect to fluid flow in a fluid path. For example, "upstream" refers to the dir