Optimization of thermal management and power density of small-scale wind turbine applications using SiC-MOSFETs

Hussein, Abdallah; Castellazzi, Alberto

Abstract

This paper presents an optimized design of 12kW 2L-FB inverter for small-scale wind turbine, taking into account some specific behavioral features of SiC power MOSFETs. Power converters used in renewable energy conversion have to deal with intermittent and variable power availability from the source, which implies that they actually work at their maximum rated power for only a small fraction of their operational time. Still, traditional thermal management design of power modules has to refer to maximum load conditions. SiC-MOSFETs exhibit a very stable performance over a broad temperature range [1-3]; this feature enables to design the cooling device for nominal operational conditions, typically corresponding to a much lower than maximum power rating. When this capability is added to the decrease in the size of passive filter elements, which can be gained by the higher switching frequency capability of SiC MOSFETs, the result is a significant increase of the converter powe, density.

Citation

Hussein, A., & Castellazzi, A. Optimization of thermal management and power density of small-scale wind turbine applications using SiC-MOSFETs. Presented at International Future Energy Electronics Conference 2017 - ECCE Asia (IFEEC 2017 - ECCE Asia)

• Conference Name: International Future Energy Electronics Conference 2017 - ECCE Asia (IFEEC 2017 - ECCE Asia)
• End Date: Jun 7, 2017
• Acceptance Date: Dec 30, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jul 27, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 27, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 27, 2017
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Small-scale wind turbine; Wind speed distribution; Thermal management; SiC-MOSFETs; Two-level converters
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/874249
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7992108/
• Related Public URLs: http://www.ifeec.tw/
• Additional Information: Published in: 2017 IEEE 3rd International Future Energy Electronics Conference and ECCE Asia (IFEEC 2017 - ECCE Asia). IEEE, c2017. ISBN: 978-1-5090-5157-1. pp. 609-614, doi:10.1109/IFEEC.2017.7992108 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
• Contract Date: Nov 27, 2017