Thermal Study of a Submerged Substation for Wave Power

Sammanfattning: At the Division of Electricity of Uppsala University, a wave power concept is being developed.It relies on wave energy converters, one buoy and one linear generator placed on the seabed, connected together to a submerged substation. The mechanical design is kept as simple as possible to ensure reliability. The submerged substation includes power electronics and different types of electric components. High reliability requirements on such subsea devices make thermal management a keyaspect in the design. Besides, no fans are used and the cooling strategy is fully-passive. The overall approach for thermal modelling of the substation is based on a thermal network atthe system level, and both analytic- and CFD- modelling at the component level. This work is focusing on the second prototype of substation developed at Uppsala University. In this thesis, this overall strategy is presented as well as a comprehensive temperature study for the inverterinstalled in the substation.In the present configuration, the inverters are limited to about 35 kW. The seawater temperature,the choice of material for the heat-sink, and the spacing of the component, were identified tohave an influence on this value. The importance of a good thermal contact between the heat-sink and the hull was also illustrated.