Heat dissipation of power electronics of a cooling unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9332671-B2
Application number	US-201313863014-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2013
Priority date	Apr 17, 2012
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

A cooling unit in a transport unit includes power electronics; a heat exchanger for thermally coupling a cooling agent of a central cooling system of the transport unit with air of the cooling unit to cool one or more generating devices; and a heat pipe for heat dissipation of the power electronics. At a first portion of the heat pipe, at least some of a working agent is in the liquid phase and, at a second portion of the heat pipe, at least some of the working agent is in the gas phase. In the first portion of the heat pipe, heat from the power electronics is absorbed by evaporating the working agent in the liquid phase. In the second portion of the heat pipe, heat is released to the cooling agent by condensing the working agent in the gas phase.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A cooling unit for cooling one or more heat generating devices provided on board of a means of transport, the cooling unit comprising:
power electronics for providing the cooling unit with electric power,
a heat exchanger for thermally coupling a cooling agent supplied by a central cooling system provided on board of the means of transport with air supplied in and/or into the cooling unit in order to cool the air by means of the cooling agent to thereby provide cooling energy in the form of cold air to the one or more heat generating devices, and
a heat pipe for heat dissipation of the power electronics, wherein, at a first portion of the heat pipe, at least some of a working agent contained inside the heat pipe is in the liquid phase and, at a second portion of the heat pipe, at least some of the working agent contained inside the heat pipe is in the gas phase, wherein the first portion of the heat pipe is thermally coupled with the power electronics such that heat from the power electronics is absorbed by evaporating the working agent being in the liquid phase and wherein the second portion of the heat pipe is thermally coupled with the cooling agent such that heat is released to the cooling agent by condensing the working agent being in the gas phase.

2. The cooling unit according to claim 1 , wherein the cooling unit further comprises a fan unit for supplying the air in the cooling unit.

3. The cooling unit according to claim 1 , wherein the second portion of the heat pipe is thermally coupled to a supply line arranged in the cooling unit for supplying the cooling agent from the central cooling system to the heat exchanger and/or to a discharge line arranged in the cooling unit for returning the cooling agent from the heat exchanger to the central cooling system.

4. The cooling unit according to claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the heat pipe is in direct or indirect contact with a casing of the power electronics, to absorb the heat from the power electronics.

5. The cooling unit according to claim 1 , wherein the heat pipe has a sealed casing and the working agent is contained within the sealed casing at a predetermined pressure which is lower than atmospheric pressure such that a predetermined temperature at which heat from the power electronics is absorbed by evaporating the working agent being in the liquid phase is lower than the normal boiling point of the working agent being in the liquid phase at atmospheric pressure.

6. The cooling unit according to claim 5 , wherein the predetermined pressure is set such that the temperature of the power electronics remains above a dew point of the ambient air of the power electronics.

7. The cooling unit according to claim 5 , wherein the heat pipe is configured such that the working agent and/or the predetermined pressure are selectively adjustable so as to change the predetermined temperature.

8. The cooling unit according to claim 1 , wherein the working agent comprises water, ethanol, acetone, sodium and/or mercury.

9. The cooling unit according to claim 5 , wherein the working agent is water and the predetermined pressure is set to 0.0234 bar such that the predetermined temperature at which heat from the power electronics is absorbed by evaporating the working agent being in the liquid phase is equal to or higher than 20° C.

10. Use of the cooling unit according to claim 1 for cooling one or more heat generating devices provided on board of a means of transport.

11. A cooling system for a means of transport, wherein the cooling system comprises:
at least one cooling unit according to claim 1 for cooling the one or more heat generating devices provided on board of the means of transport,
at least one cooling station different from the at least one cooling unit for cooling food provided on board of the means of transport, and
a central chiller device for generating cooling energy, wherein the chiller device is thermally coupled with the at least one cooling unit and the at least one cooling station to supply the cooling energy to the at least one cooling unit and to the at least one cooling station.

12. The cooling system according to claim 11 , wherein the cooling system further comprises a cooling circuit which is thermally coupled to the chiller device to supply the cooling energy to the at least one cooling unit and to the at least one cooling station.

13. Means of transport, comprising the cooling unit according to claim 1 for cooling the one or more heat generating devices provided on board of the means of transport.

14. The means of transport according to claim 13 , wherein the means of transport is an aircraft and the cooling unit is arranged on board of the aircraft such that the cooling energy in the form of cold air is supplied to In Flight Entertainment, “IFE”, electronic components.

15. The means of transport according to claim 14 , wherein the cooling unit is arranged at a rack carrying the IFE electronic components.

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Gmbh

Inventors

• Schult Jens
• Trümper Torsten

Classifications

• H05K7/20 Primary

  Modifications to facilitate cooling, ventilating, or heating · CPC title

• H05K7/2089

  for power electronics, e.g. for inverters for controlling motor · CPC title

• B64D2013/0614

  with subsystems for cooling avionics · CPC title

• F25B31/006

  Cooling of compressor or motor · CPC title

• B64D13/00 Primary

  Arrangements or adaptations of air-treatment apparatus for aircraft crew or passengers, or freight space · CPC title