Development of High-Performance GRIP Metal Cold Plates for IGBT Cooling

绝缘栅双极晶体管（igbt）提高了电动汽车（ev）的能源效率和电池续航里程，其市场正在迅速扩大。大功率igbt在运行过程中产生大量的热量，必须充分冷却以确保良好的电气性能和可靠性。这通常是通过将igbt安装到液体冷却液（通常是水-乙二醇）循环的“冷板”来完成的。这项技术面临着挑战：在保持低压降的同时，这些冷板内的热传递应该最大化。NUCAP开发了一种新的表面增强，显着增加对流传热。在新型的GRIPMetal（一项专利技术，金属挂钩分布在金属表面）IGBT冷板中，有机会实现这些表面增强，该冷板具有优异的热液压性能。这有可能产生一种低调、轻便的技术，使其成为不断增长的电动汽车和可再生能源领域有吸引力的商业产品。该项目的目标是通过对该技术进行热液压设计、优化、全面性能表征和验证，支持NUCAP开发GRIPMetal IGBT冷板。这将通过实验表征、数值模拟和可靠性测试的结合来完成。结果将包括GRIPMetal冷板性能的准确量化以及与现有商业产品的比较。该项目还将产生GRIPMetal冷板的热液压模型和冷板特定设计工具，这将使NUCAP能够设计和优化其他尺寸的冷板，以进一步应用。

Insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) improve the energy efficiency and battery range for electrical vehicles (EVs) and the market for them is rapidly expanding. High-power IGBTs generate a significant amount of heat during operation and must be adequately cooled to ensure good electrical performance and reliability. This is typically accomplished by mounting the IGBTs to "cold plates" through which a liquid cooling fluid (typically water-glycol) is circulated. This technology faces a challenge: heat transfer within these cold plates should be maximized while maintaining a low pressure drop.NUCAP has developed a novel surface enhancement which significantly increases convective heat transfer. There is an opportunity implement these surface enhancements into a new class of GRIPMetal (a patented technology where metal hooks are distributed on metal surfaces) IGBT cold plates which have superior thermal-hydraulic performance. This has the potential to yield a technology that is low-profile and lightweight making it an attractive commercial offering for the growing EV and renewable energy sectors.The objective of this project is to support NUCAP in their development of GRIPMetal IGBT cold plates by performing the thermal-hydraulic design, optimization, and full performance characterization and validation of this technology. This will be accomplished through a combination of experimental characterization, numerical modelling, and reliability testing. The outcomes will include accurate quantification of GRIPMetal cold plate performance and comparisons to existing commercially available offerings. The project will also yield thermal-hydraulic models for GRIPMetal cold plates and cold-plate specific design tools which will allow NUCAP to design and optimize other sizes of cold plates for further applications.