Enhanced spray cooling technique for wedge cooling

摘要

A wedge cooling apparatus and method for cooling a rotating machine, such as a generator, disperses a spray of cooling fluid into the wedges of the generator via a pipe that runs along the length of each of the wedges. The pipe may include a plurality of spray delivery devices to spray cooling fluid from the pipe to the inside of the wedges. The spray cooling method results in a high heat transfer coefficient of about 2000-3000 W/m²C as opposed to conventional conduction cooling, which has a heat transfer coefficient of about 200-300 W/m²C. The apparatus and method of the present invention efficiently removes heat from high powered, high current density designed generators.