Open AccessThermal modelling of a passively cooled inverter for wave power
Author(s) -
Baudoin Antoine,
Boström Cecilia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
iet renewable power generation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 76
ISSN - 1752-1424
DOI - 10.1049/iet-rpg.2014.0112
Subject(s) - inverter , reliability (semiconductor) , thermal , renewable energy , power (physics) , hull , automotive engineering , limit (mathematics) , marine engineering , electricity , thermal energy , electrical engineering , computer science , engineering , environmental science , physics , voltage , mathematics , thermodynamics , mathematical analysis
Owing to very costly maintenance operations, the reliability of electrical systems for offshore renewable energy is a major issue to make electricity production economical. Therefore proper thermal management is essential in order to avoid the components from being damaged by excessive temperature increase. Both analytic and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models were implemented to assess the temperature increase in the inverter installed in a submerged substation and during working conditions. It was shown that this inverter could transmit a total power of up to about 35 kW. This limit is dependent on a certain distance between the modules and a perfect thermal contact with the hull. The influence of several of such parameters as well as the efficiency of passive cooling were studied.