Shipboard PEBB Cooling Strategies

We discuss herein several cooling strategies applicable to shipboard Power Electronics Building Blocks (PEBBs), namely the PEBB 1000 and a notional PEBB 6000 currently under development, subject to the following design goals and constraints: (1) small and lightweight package (i.e., high power density); (2) easy swapability achieved by minimizing any connections requiring sailor intervention for connecting or disconnecting; and (3) any thermal solution must be able to cool not only a single PEBB unit, but also multiple units placed in close proximity to one another when combined to make up a converter. For the PEBB 1000 application, air cooling is most likely sufficient to meet the needs, and several arrangements of fin structures were investigated. On the other hand, air cooling, water cooling, and water cooling with a dry interface all have potential for meeting the cooling demand of an envisioned PEBB 6000 and warrant further investigation. In any case, the localized heat generated within the PEBB will require significant spreading to a larger surface area for subsequent transfer out of the PEBB.