Power electronic device cooling system and distributed power generation system

• US 10,356,962 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GREE Electric Appliances Incorporated of Zhuhai
• Original Assignee: GREE Electric Appliances Incorporated of Zhuhai
• Inventors: Li, Hongbo, Liu, Hua, Zhang, Zhiping, Zhou, Yu, Liu, Huaican
• Primary Examiner(s): Jules, Frantz F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tanenbaum, Steve S
• Application Number:
  US15/024,473
• Publication Number:
  US 20160219759A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,847 Days
• Field of Search: 622592
• CPC Class Codes: F25B 1/00 Compression machines, plants or systems with non-reversible cycle F25B3/00, F25B5/00, F25B6/00, F25B7/00, F25B9/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20936 Liquid coolant with phase change

Abstract

The invention discloses a power electronic device cooling system, which includes an air conditioning unit, a coolant pump (31), a bypass throttling element (32) and a cooler. The coolant pump (31) takes liquid from a first condenser (13) of the air conditioning unit, a liquid coolant enters the cooler after being throttled by the bypass throttling element (32), the low-temperature coolant cools a power electronic device at the cooler, and the coolant enters an evaporator (11) of the air conditioning unit to finish a cooling cycle after flowing out of the cooler. The power electronic device cooling system has a good cooling effect, and is high in cooling efficiency, small in equipment size and low in noise, and moreover, the power electronic device may be located in a sealed environment and prevented from influence of dust, and is internally clean and long in operation life.

Claims

1. A power electronic device cooling system, comprising:

an air conditioning unit, a coolant pump, bypass throttling elements and coolers,

wherein the air conditioning unit comprises an evaporator, a compressor, a first condenser and a main branch throttling element which are connected into an air conditioning cooling circulation system,

the first condenser, the coolant pump, the bypass throttling elements, the coolers and the evaporator are sequentially communicated,

an inlet of the coolant pump is communicated with the first condenser, an outlet of the coolant pump is communicated with a first end of the bypass throttling elements, a second end of the bypass throttling elements is communicated with a first end of the coolers, a second end of the coolers is communicated with the evaporator, and the coolers exchanges heat with a power electronic device to cool the power electronic device,

a second condenser, wherein the second condenser is connected between the coolers and the evaporator,

multiple cooling branches, wherein each cooling branch comprises one of the bypass throttling elements and at least one of the coolers, an inlet of each cooling branch is communicated with the outlet of the coolant pump and the outlet of a one-way valve, and an outlet of each cooling branch is communicated with the second condenser,

a coolant circulation pipeline, which is arranged between the first condenser and the bypass throttling elements, and is arranged in parallel with a pipeline having the coolant pump, the one-way valve is provided in the coolant circulation pipeline, according to operation states of the air conditioning unit, the coolant circulation pipeline or the pipeline having the coolant pump is put into use, wherein;

when the air conditioning unit is stopped, the refrigerant in the first condenser flows to the multiple cooling branches through the pipeline having the coolant pump, and the refrigerant passes through the bypass throttling elements and the coolers to cool down the power electronic device, then the refrigerant flows to the evaporator through the second condenser, or

when the air conditioning unit is started to operate, the refrigerant in the first condenser flows to the multiple cooling branches through the coolant circulation pipeline and one-way valve, and the refrigerant passes through the bypass throttling elements and the coolers to cool down the power electronic device, then the refrigerant flows to the evaporator through the second condenser.

2. The power electronic device cooling system according to claim 1, further comprising the one-way valve, wherein an inlet of the one-way valve is communicated with the first condenser, and an outlet is communicated with the first end of each bypass throttling element.

3. The power electronic device cooling system according to claim 1, wherein each bypass throttling element is one or a combination of two or more of a capillary tube, a throttling orifice plate, a thermal expansion valve and an electronic expansion valve.

4. The power electronic device cooling system according to claim 1, wherein the air conditioning unit is a water-cooled air conditioning unit.

5. The power electronic device cooling system according to claim 1, wherein the power electronic device comprises a rectifier module and an inverter module, the cooling branches comprise a first cooling branch and a second cooling branch, the first cooling branch is configured to cool the rectifier module, and the second cooling branch is configured to cool the inverter module.

6. The power electronic device cooling system according to claim 5, wherein the power electronic device further comprises a reactor, and the cooling branches further comprise a third cooling branch configured to cool the reactor.

7. The power electronic device cooling system according to claim 6, wherein the first cooling branch comprises a first bypass throttling element, the second cooling branch comprises a second bypass throttling element, the third cooling branch comprises a third bypass throttling element, the first bypass throttling element and the second bypass throttling element are adjustable throttling elements, and the third bypass throttling element is a fixed-proportion throttling element.

8. A distributed power generation system, comprising a power electronic device cooling system and a distributed power plant, wherein the power electronic device cooling system is the power electronic device cooling system according to claim 1, the distributed power generation system supplies power to a load and/or performs grid-connected power generation through a power electronic device, and the load comprises an air conditioning unit.

9. The distributed power generation system according to claim 8, wherein the power electronic device comprises an off-grid inverter, and the distributed power plant is connected with the off-grid inverter, and supplies power to the air conditioning unit through the off-grid inverter.

10. The distributed power generation system according to claim 9, wherein the power electronic device further comprises a converter, and one end of the converter is connected with a public grid, while the other end is connected with the distributed power plant and/or the off-grid inverter.