Traction converter and railway vehicle

Abstract

The present invention equalizes the temperatures of semiconductor elements and efficiently cools the semiconductor elements in a lightweight device configuration, by optimally combining the configurations of heat radiation fins in accordance with the configuration of the semiconductor elements. A traction converter includes plural semiconductor elements included in a traction converting circuit and a cooler to radiate heat from the plural semiconductor elements to outside air, the cooler including a heat receiving block, plural heat pipes and plural heat radiation fins, the plural semiconductor elements being arrayed on one surface of the heat receiving block, heat receiving parts of the plural heat pipes being buried in the opposite surface of the heat receiving block, heat radiation parts of the plural heat pipes being erectly provided so as to protrude from the heat receiving block, the plural heat radiation fins being joined to the heat radiation parts. In the cooler, three semiconductor elements are provided in a cooling wind flow direction, and, when a region at which the plural heat radiation fins are provided is divided in the cooling wind flow direction into three of an up-wind region, a mid-wind region and a down-wind region, a heat radiation fin surface area at the up-wind region is in a range of 0.33 to 0.42 times of a heat radiation fin surface area at the down-wind region, and a heat radiation fin surface area at the mid-wind region is in a range of 0.42 to 0.63 times of the heat radiation fin surface area at the down-wind region.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a power conversion device, and more particularly to a power conversion device for electrified railway vehicles. Background technique [0002] Electric railway vehicles are equipped with power conversion devices such as inverters and inverters in order to control electric motors for driving the vehicles. These power conversion devices perform power conversion by switching at high frequency using semiconductor elements such as IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) and GTO (Gate Turn Off Thyristor). [0003] In semiconductor elements, heat is generated during power-on and switching. If the semiconductor element becomes high temperature due to this heat, the conversion efficiency may decrease or the element may be destroyed. Therefore, it is necessary to cool the semiconductor element to a predetermined temperature. within range. Power conversion devices are mainly installed under the floor of vehicles where the mounti...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0009] In the cooler described in Patent Document 1, the pitch of fins on the upper side, that is, the leeward side is reduced and the number of fins is increased. However, in terms of this structure, the areas of the fins on the upwind side and the leeward side are not optimal. Therefore, there are problems such as uneven temperature of each semiconductor element and poor cooling efficiency.

[0010] In addition, in the cooler described in Patent Document 2, when the fin group is divided into three, for example, the division point between the windward fin and the middle fin and the division point between the midstream fin and the leeward fin The area occupied by the fins on the windward side where the fins are divided into three equal parts along the cooling air flow direction, that is, the fins on the downwind side with a smaller pitch and a large number of fins, increases the weight of the cooler. subject

Furthermore, the structure described in Patent Document 2 is effective at a specific fin pitch, but there is a problem that the temperature cannot be made uniform when the fin pitch is changed.

Furthermore, the fins on the windward side, midstream, and leeward side are not in the same shape, so there is another problem of high manufacturing cost.

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