Water-Cooled Resistor With Integrated Cooling Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing water-cooled resistors for automotive and rail vehicles face issues with poor heat distribution, high manufacturing costs, and weight due to leak-prone cooling channels, limiting their ability to handle increasing power densities and requiring complex cooling systems.
Innovation Solution
A water-cooled resistor design featuring a circuit board with heat sinks on both sides, using meandering cooling channels integrated into a cast workpiece with optimized cross-sections and surface treatments to enhance heat transfer, reducing weight and complexity while ensuring uniform cooling and protection against leaks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cooling channels are implemented as pipes with connection points, then cooling function is achieved, but manufacturing cost increases and reliability decreases due to leaks at connection points
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling channels are integrated directly into the housing structure through injection molding, merging the cooling system with the housing into a single component. This eliminates separate pipes and connection points, thereby improving reliability by removing leak-prone joints while simplifying manufacturing through integrated production
Solution Approach 2:
The housing serves multiple functions: it provides structural support, electrical insulation, and integrated cooling channels. By making the housing multi-functional, the design eliminates the need for separate cooling pipes, reducing manufacturing complexity and improving reliability simultaneously
2Power
If aluminum tubes with round diameter are used for cooling channels, then manufacturing is simplified, but heat dissipation capability is limited and power density must be kept low
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling channels are designed with rectangular cross-sections instead of round tubes, changing the geometric parameters to increase the cooling surface area. This allows for higher power density while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through injection molding integration
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling channels extend in multiple directions including longitudinal, transverse, and diagonal orientations within the housing, utilizing three-dimensional space efficiently. This multi-directional arrangement increases heat dissipation capability while maintaining design simplicity through integrated molding
3Temperature
If conventional cooling systems are used, then cooling function is provided, but weight is high and uniform heat dissipation across the resistor body is difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system is segmented into multiple independent channels distributed throughout the housing, with each channel serving specific regions. This segmentation enables uniform heat dissipation across different areas of the resistor body while using lightweight plastic material instead of heavy metal cooling systems
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the housing are equipped with cooling channels according to their specific thermal requirements. The cooling channel arrangement is optimized for each location to achieve uniform heat dissipation across the entire resistor body, using lightweight materials with appropriate thermal properties
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves improved cooling efficiency, reduced weight, and compliance with high protection classes like IP 69k, enabling effective heat dissipation across the resistor surface and preventing damage from temperature differences.
Implementation Method 1
The cooling channels serve as heat exchangers that absorb the surface temperature and lead it away from the surfaces of the resistance body that are to be cooled
Implementation Method 2
Water cooling supplies cooling liquid to the surfaces to be cooled with the aid of cooling channels
Implementation Method 3
a heat sink is arranged on both sides on surfaces of which a circuit board is arranged
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The electrical resistor has resistive element (22) and cooling device provided in resistor main structure (1). The coolant is made to pass through cooling channel in cooling structure (20,21) made of aluminum. The non-circular cross section and comprehensive course are provided in cooling channels of cooling structure.