1. Lifetime Analysis of IGBT Power Modules in Passively Cooled Tidal Turbine Converters
- Author
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George Lavidas, Faisal Wani, Henk Polinder, Kaswar Mostafa, Udai Shipurkar, A. Jarquin Laguna, and Jianning Dong
- Subjects
Control and Optimization ,Passive cooling ,020209 energy ,Nuclear engineering ,Energy Engineering and Power Technology ,02 engineering and technology ,Temperature cycling ,lcsh:Technology ,7. Clean energy ,Turbine ,Physics::Fluid Dynamics ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Submerged power electronics ,Engineering (miscellaneous) ,Tidal turbines ,Lifetime estimation ,lcsh:T ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,business.industry ,submerged power electronics ,insulated gate bipolar transistors ,lifetime estimation ,passive cooling ,thermal cycling ,tidal turbines ,turbulence ,waves ,active speed stall control ,Thermal cycling ,020208 electrical & electronic engineering ,Active speed stall control ,Insulated-gate bipolar transistor ,Converters ,Insulated gate bipolar transistors ,Power (physics) ,Turbulence ,13. Climate action ,Waves ,Environmental science ,business ,Failure mode and effects analysis ,Tidal power ,Energy (miscellaneous) - Abstract
Thermal cycling is one of the major reasons for failure in power electronic converters. For submerged tidal turbine converters investigating this failure mode is critical in improving the reliability, and minimizing the cost of energy from tidal turbines. This paper considers a submerged tidal turbine converter which is passively cooled by seawater, and where the turbine has fixed-pitch blades. In this respect, this study is different from similar studies on wind turbine converters, which are mostly cooled by active methods, and where turbines are mostly pitch controlled. The main goal is to quantify the impact of surface waves and turbulence in tidal stream velocity on the lifetime of the converter IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) modules. The lifetime model of the IGBT modules is based on the accumulation of fatigue due to thermal cycling. Results indicate that turbulence and surface waves can have a significant impact on the lifetime of the IGBT modules. Furthermore, to accelerate the speed of the lifetime calculation, this paper uses a modified approach by dividing the thermal models into low and high frequency models. The final calculated lifetime values suggest that relying on passive cooling could be adequate for the tidal converters as far as thermal cycling is concerned.
- Published
- 2020
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