JP5024601B2 - Power converter - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cooling structure for a power converter.

A conventional power conversion device is shown in FIG. 6 as one that cools a heating component such as a reactor arranged in a casing by directly applying cooling air with a cooling fan (see, for example, Patent Document 1). ).
FIG. 6 is a side view showing a cooling structure of the power converter of the first prior art. In FIG. 6, 1 is a housing, 2 is a cooling fan, 3 is a duct, 4 is a reactor, 5 is a semiconductor element, and 6 is a capacitor. A reactor 4, a semiconductor element 5, and a capacitor 6 are disposed in the duct 3, and cooling components are directly applied by the cooling fan 2 to cool the heat generating components.
As another conventional technique, in a power conversion device, a cooling fan causes a cooling air to flow through a duct to cool a semiconductor element, and at the same time, discharges air inside the housing to cause other reactors, capacitors, and the like. A configuration for cooling the heat-generating component is as shown in FIG. 7 (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
FIG. 7 is a side view showing a cooling structure of the power conversion device of the second prior art. In FIG. 7, 21 is a housing, 22 is a cooling fan, 23 is a duct, 24a is a DC reactor, 24b is an AC reactor, 25 is a semiconductor element, 26 is a capacitor, 27 is an inlet, 28 is a cooling body, and 29 is a ventilation. A passage entrance, 30 is a ventilation passage exit, 31 is a ventilation passage entrance, 32 is a ventilation passage exit, 33 is an exhaust opening, and 34 is a space portion.
In a power conversion device in which electrical equipment components such as a DC reactor 24 a, an AC reactor 24 b, a semiconductor element 25, and a capacitor 26 are provided in the housing 21, a cooling body 28 is formed in the air inlet 27 of the housing 21 through a space 34. The ventilation passage inlet 29 of the duct 23 is connected to the ventilation passage outlet 30 of the cooling body 28, and the cooling fan 22 is connected between the ventilation passage outlet 32 of the duct 23 and the exhaust port 33 of the housing 21. The semiconductor element 25 is mounted on the outer surface of the cooling body 28, and a slit (not shown) is formed in the duct 23, and the waste heat of the electrical equipment parts provided in the vicinity of the slit is sucked from the slit (not shown). Exhausted. Thus, the exhaust heat of the device parts is smoothly exhausted by one fan without trapping in the housing.
JP 2000-197362 A (page 6, FIG. 1) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-218736 (page 4, FIG. 1)

However, the prior art has the following problems.
(1) In the cooling structure of the power conversion device of the first prior art, although a single fan can cool other heat-generating components such as a reactor and a capacitor at the same time as a semiconductor element, cooling air is blown over the entire installation area. In order to flow, it was necessary to secure an air volume capable of cooling the parts (semiconductor elements, resistors) having the most severe heat load. Furthermore, since the temperature of the cooling air increases from the upstream to the downstream, there is a problem that the temperature of the components arranged downstream increases, so the fan size must be increased, and the installation space and cost disadvantages It was.
(2) In addition, the structures of the first and second prior arts have problems in that the temperature distribution is uneven due to the arrangement of components, and that cooling air is difficult to pass through narrow gaps such as between the coil phases of the reactor.
The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and it is possible to cool a high heat-generating component such as a resistor or a semiconductor element without causing uneven temperature distribution due to the arrangement of the components, and at the same time, between the coil phases of the reactor. It is an object of the present invention to provide a compact and inexpensive power conversion device that can apply cooling air.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as follows.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the power converter having a high heat-generating component such as a resistor or a semiconductor element in the housing, a duct that forms a ventilation path in the vertical direction is provided in front of the housing. A cooling fan for cooling the high heat generating component provided in the duct with a high heat generating component such as the resistor or the semiconductor element close to the air passage inlet of the duct at the bottom of the casing And a reactor is provided behind the housing via a mounting base plate formed so as to extend in the vertical direction in the vicinity of the duct, and between the duct and the mounting base plate. the space portion such that the second air passage is Yes formed, is provided with an opening at a position immediately below the reactor in the mounting base plate, the guide plate between said duct and said opening The cooling air blown from the opening through the space portion, which is a ventilation path formed separately from the duct, passes through a gap of the coil correlation of the reactor. As described above, the mounting position of the guide plate is matched with the position between the coil phases of the reactor .
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the power conversion device according to the first aspect, the reactor is an AC reactor.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the power converter according to the second aspect, the AC reactor is configured such that the core constituting the core of the reactor is attached to the attachment base plate by a column made of a hexagonal stud. To do.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the power conversion device according to the first aspect, the cooling air that passes between the coil phases of the AC reactor is discharged to a part of the casing facing the rear surface of the reactor. The slit is provided .

According to the present invention, a highly heat-generating component such as a semiconductor element or a resistor is cooled by a cooling fan without causing uneven temperature distribution due to the arrangement of the components, and at the same time, the reactor is locally cooled without adding a cooling fan. Therefore, a compact and inexpensive power conversion device can be configured.
Furthermore, since the cooling air can be locally applied between the coil phases of the reactor without adding a cooling fan, a compact and inexpensive power conversion device can be configured.
And by providing a slit in the reactor back surface side in a housing | casing, it can discharge | emit efficiently outside without confining the cooling air which raised the temperature through between the coil phases of a reactor in a housing | casing.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a power conversion device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the power conversion device with the duct and resistance of FIG. 1 removed. 3 is a front view of the power converter as viewed from the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a side view of the power converter as viewed from the direction of arrow B in FIG.
In the figure, 1 is a casing constituting the entire power conversion device, 2 is a cooling fan, 3 is a duct, 4 is a reactor, 7 is a resistor, 8 is an inverter module constituting a power conversion circuit unit, 9 is an input filter, 10 Denotes an opening, 12 denotes a mounting base plate, 15 denotes an output terminal, 16 denotes a space, and F denotes a flow of cooling air.

The features of the cooling structure of the present invention are as follows.
In the power conversion device shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a duct 3 that forms a ventilation path in the vertical direction is provided in front of the housing 1, and high heat generation such as a resistor 7 or a semiconductor element is provided inside the duct 3. Parts are provided, and a cooling fan 2 for cooling the highly heat-generating parts is provided at the bottom of the casing 1 in the vicinity of the inlet of the duct 3. Further, a heat generating component such as a reactor 4 is provided behind the housing 1 via a mounting base plate 12 formed so as to extend in the vertical direction close to the duct 3, and the duct 3 and the mounting base plate 12. A space portion 16 is formed so as to be a second ventilation path between the two and the cooling air by the cooling fan 2 is partly supplied by the space portion 16 which is a ventilation path formed separately from the duct 3. Another heat-generating component such as the reactor 4 in the conversion device is locally cooled.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the mounting base plate 12 of the reactor 4 is provided with an opening 10 at a position directly below the reactor.

Next, the operation will be described.
In the above power converter, a three-phase input power source (not shown) is connected to the input filter 9 and then rectified to direct current in the inverter module 8 via the reactor 4 and then converted into alternating current by switching by a semiconductor element (not shown). Finally, it is output to a motor (not shown) through the output terminal 15. The resistor 7 is electrically connected to the inverter module 8. In this case, when regenerative energy is input to the power converter through a motor (not shown), the regenerative energy is consumed by the resistor 7. At this time, since the resistor 7 becomes high temperature due to consumption of regenerative energy, cooling by the cooling fan 2 is necessary. Moreover, since the reactor 4 also generates a considerable amount of heat, it requires cooling air by forced air cooling.

The cooling air from the cooling fan 2 is guided into the duct 3 to cool the resistance 7 in the duct, and a part of the remaining cooling air is a space portion 16 provided between the duct 3 and the mounting base plate 12. And the reactor 4 is cooled through the opening 10.
At this time, since the cooling air blown from the cooling fan 2 to the space portion 16 does not exchange heat with other heat-generating components until reaching the opening 10, the ventilation path of the duct 3 adjacent to the cooling fan 2 The temperature at the inlet remains maintained. For this reason, it is possible to directly apply the cooling air equivalent to the outside air temperature to the reactor 4.

  As described above, in the conventional cooling structure of the power conversion device, the heat generating parts such as the resistors and the semiconductor elements are simultaneously cooled with other heat generating parts such as the reactor and the capacitor. However, in the present invention, a part of the cooling air generated by the cooling fan passes through another ventilation path. Since it can be directly applied to the object to be cooled, there is no increase in the temperature of the cooling air, and it can be efficiently cooled with the minimum necessary air volume.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show a power converter according to a second embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 5A is a side view thereof, and FIG. 5B is an enlarged side view of the reactor cooling structure of FIG.
In FIG. 5, 11 is a guide plate, 13 is between coil phases, 14 is a slit, 17 is a core, and 18 is a hexagonal stud.
The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that a guide plate 11 is provided immediately before the opening 10 in the mounting base plate 12, that is, between the opening 10 and the duct 3 in FIG. In this configuration, the cooling air is blown vertically to the reactor 4 by the guide plate 11. Moreover, the reactor 4 is comprised by the AC reactor, and the position between the attachment position of the guide plate 11 and the coil phase of the reactor 4 so that the cooling air sent from the opening 10 passes through the gap between the coil phases 13 of the AC reactor. Are the same. Further, as shown in FIG. 5 (b), a slit 14 for discharging the cooling air passing through the coil phase 13 of the reactor to the outside is provided in a part of the housing 1 facing the back surface of the reactor 4. . Here, in the AC reactor, the core 17 constituting the core of the reactor is attached to the attachment base plate 12 by a support such as a hexagonal stud 18.

Next, the operation will be described.
As can be seen from the cooling air flow F shown in FIG. 5, a part of the cooling air generated by the cooling fan 2 passes through the space 16 between the duct 3 and the mounting base plate 12 and reaches the opening 10. At this time, the cooling air F is changed in direction by the guide plate 11 provided in the opening 10 and is jetted toward the reactor 4 in a direction perpendicular to the opening 10 (also perpendicular to the reactor 4). . Thereafter, the cooling air passes through the coil phase 13 and is discharged to the outside from the slit 14 of the housing 1 while cooling the coil.

Normally, the reactor has the highest coil surface temperature between the coil phases (because air stagnates between the coil phases), but in this embodiment, by applying cooling air locally in the direction between the coil phases via the guide plate, The reactor surface temperature can be kept within an allowable value with the minimum necessary air volume. At this time, when the mounting position of the guide plate and the position between the coil phases of the reactor are made to coincide with each other, the amount of cooling air flowing between the coil phases increases, and the temperature rise of the reactor can be significantly suppressed.
Further, since the reactor is directly fixed to the mounting base plate with a hexagonal stud or the like, an extra mounting member is not required, and a sufficient ventilation space can be secured for cooling air. Thereby, a space-saving and inexpensive reactor mounting and cooling structure can be provided.
Further, since the slit is provided on the rear side of the reactor in the casing, the cooling air whose temperature has increased through the coil phases of the reactor can be efficiently discharged outside without being trapped inside the casing.

  The present invention relates to a power conversion device that cools a reactor by providing an opening in a reactor mounting base and introducing a part of cooling air for cooling a semiconductor element or resistance into the opening through another path. It is useful as a means for solving the problem of uneven temperature distribution caused by the arrangement of the heat generating components.

The perspective view of the power converter device showing the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the power conversion device with the duct removed and the resistance removed; The front view of the power converter device which looked at FIG. 1 from arrow A, The side view of the power converter device which looked at Drawing 1 from arrow B, It is the power converter device which shows 2nd Example of this invention, Comprising: (a) is the side view, (b) is the side view which expanded the cooling structure of the reactor part of (a), The side view of the power converter device which shows 1st prior art, Side view of power converter showing second prior art

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Case 2 Cooling fan 3 Duct 4 Reactor 5 Semiconductor element 6 Capacitor 7 Resistance 8 Inverter module 9 Input filter 10 Opening part 11 Guide board 12 Mounting base board 13 Between coil phases 14 Slit 15 Output terminal 16 Space part 17 Core,
18 Hexagon stud F Cooling air flow

Claims (4)

In a power converter with a high heat generation component such as a resistor or a semiconductor element in the housing,
A duct that forms a ventilation path in the vertical direction is provided in front of the housing,
High heat-generating parts such as the resistor or the semiconductor element are provided inside the duct,
A cooling fan for cooling the high heat-generating component is provided near the inlet of the duct at the bottom of the casing,
A reactor is provided at the rear in the housing via an attachment base plate formed so as to extend in the vertical direction close to the duct,
A space is formed between the duct and the mounting base plate to form a second ventilation path,
An opening is provided at a position directly below the reactor in the mounting base plate,
A guide plate is installed between the opening and the duct,
A part of the cooling air by the cooling fan is such that the cooling air blown from the opening through the space which is a ventilation path formed separately from the duct passes through the coil correlation gap of the reactor. An electric power converter characterized in that an attachment position of the guide plate and a position between coil phases of the reactor are matched . The power converter according to claim 1 , wherein the reactor is an AC reactor . In the AC reactor, the core constituting the core of the reactor is supported by a hexagonal stud.
The power conversion device according to claim 2 , wherein the power conversion device is attached to the attachment base plate by a pillar . The power conversion device according to claim 1, wherein a slit for discharging cooling air that has passed between the coil phases of the AC reactor to the outside is provided in a part of the casing facing the rear surface of the reactor. .

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