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US 9,153,374 B2Granted
Cooling arrangements for drive systems
AssigneeTECO-Westinghouse Motor Company
InventorsDevdatta Kulkarni, Thomas Keister
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an embodiment, a drive system includes a transformer enclosed in an enclosure including a heat exchanger to cool a fluid medium. In addition, the system includes a plurality of power cubes each including a rectifier, a DC-link, and an inverter. Each power cube may include a plurality of cold plates each coupled to a corresponding switching device of the inverter, an inlet port in communication with a first one of the plurality of cold plates and an outlet port in communication with a last one of the plurality of cold plates. In turn, a manifold assembly is to couple at least the power cubes to enable two phase cooling of the power cubes and the transformer via one or more heat exchangers.
Claims17
A drive system comprising:
- an enclosed cabinet including a plurality of slices of the drive system, the enclosed cabinet including:
- a power cube bay including:
- a first portion having a plurality of cube chambers each having a protective enclosure in which to house a corresponding one of a plurality of power cubes, each of the plurality of power cubes including an inlet port to receive a flow of liquid coolant and an outlet port to output a flow of two phase coolant;
- and
- a second portion to accommodate at least a portion of a cooling system for the drive system, the cooling system comprising a two phase system and including an inlet conduit coupled to a plurality of first connection members each to connect to a corresponding inlet port of one of the plurality of power cubes to enable the flow of liquid coolant to the corresponding power cube, an outlet conduit coupled to a plurality of second connection members each to connect to a corresponding outlet port of one of the plurality of power cubes to enable the flow of two phase coolant from the corresponding power cube;
- and
- a transformer bay to house at least one transformer to couple between a utility connection and the plurality of power cubes, the at least one transformer to output a plurality of phases of output power, the transformer bay to further house a heat exchanger to enable heat exchange with the flow of liquid coolant,
- wherein the transformer comprises at least two windings, a first flow of air to pass through a first winding of the at least two windings in a first direction, a second flow of the air to pass through a second winding of the at least two windings, the second flow of the air being opposite to the first flow of the air.
5 more elements
A drive system comprising:
- a transformer having a primary winding to receive power from a utility connection and a plurality of secondary windings, the transformer enclosed in an enclosed enclosure including a first heat exchanger to cool a fluid medium;
- a plurality of power cubes each coupled to a corresponding one of the plurality of secondary windings and including a rectifier, a DC-link, and an inverter, wherein each power cube of the power cubes includes a plurality of cold plates each coupled to a corresponding switching device of the inverter, an inlet port in communication with a first one of the plurality of cold plates and an outlet port in communication with a last one of the plurality of cold plates;
- and
- a manifold assembly to support supplying the fluid medium to the cold plates and the enclosed enclosure, an inlet conduit and an outlet conduit and further to support a plurality of first connection members to enable mating of each of the plurality of first connection members to the inlet port of a respective one of the plurality of power cubes and the enclosed enclosure and to enable mating of each of the plurality of second connection members to the outlet port of the respective one of the plurality of power cubes and the enclosed enclosure to enable two phase cooling of the plurality of power cubes and the transformer.
1 more element
A drive system comprising:
- a plurality of slices configured within an enclosed cabinet, each of the plurality of slices including:
- a transformer having a primary winding to receive power from a utility connection and at least one secondary winding;
- a first heat exchanger adjacent to the transformer to enable heat exchange with the transformer, wherein the first heat exchanger is coupled to an inlet conduit to receive a flow of liquid coolant and coupled to an outlet conduit to output a flow of two phase coolant;
- a plurality of power cubes each coupled to the at least one secondary winding and including a rectifier, a DC-link, and an inverter, wherein each power cube of the power cubes includes a plurality of cold plates each coupled to a corresponding switching device of the inverter, an inlet port in communication with a first one of the plurality of cold plates and an outlet port in communication with a last one of the plurality of cold plates;
- and
- a manifold assembly to support the inlet conduit and the outlet conduit and further to support a plurality of first connection members and a plurality of second connection members to enable mating of each of the plurality of first connection members to the inlet port of the first one of the plurality of power cubes and each of the plurality of second connection members to the outlet port of the last one of the plurality of power cubes to enable two phase cooling of the plurality of power cubes;
- and
- a second heat exchanger to receive the flow of two phase coolant from the outlet conduit and to enable heat exchange and to provide the liquid coolant to the inlet conduit, the second heat exchanger external to the enclosed cabinet.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.