Power Electronics Component Location and Heat Sink Length Optimization – Hybrid Electrical Vehicle (HEV)

Background/Objectives: Main components of Electric Vehicle (EV) inverter such as Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) and diodes are subtle to temperature and must operate below fixed temperature limits to function effectively. Currently there are high demands in reducing the size of the inverter to fit in limited space available in vehicles and also to increase the output. Methods/Statistical Analysis: This paper focuses on optimizing best location of PE components with heatsink and optimizing the length of heatsink in order to reduce the overall temperature of a Hybrid Electrical Vehicle (HEV) inverter. The heat transfer model of IGBTs and diodes was modelled in MATLAB environment. The model was enhanced to incorporate heat sink model which was developed based on commercially available heatsink. Simulated annealing optimization method was used for both the optimization. Findings: Applying component location and heatsink length optimization, initial maximum temperature of inverter is reduced from 131.616 to126.979°C. Further, total heat sink length was also reduced from 48cm to 32.1cm. The results obtained clearly indicate that this method is successful as it is able to reduce the overall temperature by 5°C. It is indeed a new finding as current research on heat sink only focuses on finding better heatsink material, interface material, better coolant type and fin optimization. Application/ Improvements: Applying these optimizations in designing stage of an inverter can manage overall heat distribution in an inverter and shrink the packaging size which will lead to cost reduction in manufacturing.