Fretting wear failure of press pack IGBT devices

The reliability of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) devices is critical for ensuring the safety of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). Fretting wear failure is a typical failure mode of press pack IGBT devices during long-term operation. This paper simulates the fretting wear failure process of press pack IGBTs, obtains the change trends of various performance parameters during the fretting wear process. First, a finite element model of PP-IGBT device is established considering the multi-physical field coupling. Then, based on the fretting wear damage mechanism of the contact surface materials, a fretting wear simulation model of the press pack IGBT device is established to take into account the increase of contact surface wear roughness. Finally, the variation trends of each performance parameter in the fretting wear process are investigated.