Modelling and analysis of a liquid-cooled system for thermal management application of an electronic equipment

Abstract

The removal of heat from electronic components, increasingly miniaturized with high power dissipation per unit volume, is a significant industrial problem to be resolved, to avoid failures due to excessive temperatures and besides to maintain performance and operating conditions. This article describes the development of a one-dimensional thermodynamic model to simulate the cooling of electronic chips belonging to inverters for stationary PV solar arrays; these are typically located in very different environments, including deserts or very hot areas, so the operating life of theirs inverter units are strongly affected by changes in external environmental conditions. Results have shown that the model allows, with very low calculation times, to quantify the effects of cooling performance and thermal load of electronics both in design and off-design conditions: the working temperature of the components was monitored as the effectiveness of the main heat exchanger vary with the exposure to the external environment over time, in terms of fouling and as the ambient air temperature changes; in this case a simple control system was simulated to limit the maximum temperature of the chips and the air flow rate of the fans. The thermal performances of two types of glycol-based refrigerant fluids have been compared.