Thermal Management Within Multi-Disciplinary System Design of a Rubik’s-Cube-sized 2kW Power Inverter

High-power-density inverters have been used in a wide variety of applications, such as renewable energy systems, micro-grids, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), military, and automotive applications. These power inverters are multidisciplinary and complex engineered systems, involving electrical and thermal sub-systems, which convert DC power, from batteries and solar cells, into AC power that is compatible with the utility grid. This paper is focused on the thermal and mechanical design of a high-efficiency, 2-kW, portable, single-phase power inverter, with a volume of 29 in 3 , resulting in a power density of 69 W/in 3 . This work proposes an efficient thermal management and cooling concept to reduce hot spots by distributing the heat more uniformly inside the inverter’s enclosure and quickly removing it out of the system. Detailed 3D CAD models are developed, and CFD and FE analyses are carried out at the component, sub-system and system levels.