Reduced Order Modeling for Thermal Simulations of Electric Components With Surface-to-Surface Radiation

This paper introduces the application of a reduced-order modeling technique for accurate temperature monitoring in Power Electronics modules. The methodology involves coupling the Finite Element Method with the radiosity equation to obtain a high-fidelity representation of the physical behavior of the device. These models account also for surface-to-surface radiation, an aspect that can have a high impact when the operating temperatures increase, and the components are close to each other, which is a common scenario for high power density and compact modules. The Model Order Reduction is performed via the Proper orthogonal decomposition, coupled with the Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method to handle the nonlinearity introduced by the surface-to-surface radiation. This approach allows to reduce the computation time with a limited effect on the accuracy of the prediction. The method is applied to reduce the order of the thermal model of a DC-DC converter. Numerical and experimental results demonstrate the approach’s effectiveness, showcasing high accuracy with minimal computation time and memory cost.