Active cooling and thermal management of a downhole tool electronics section.

High Temperature (HT) wellbores represent one of today’s biggest challenges for the oil and gas industry. The majority of well intervention wireline tools contain temperature sensitive electronics that are not able to withstand the high temperatures of HT wellbores (> 150°C), for an extended period of time. This work presents the design and construction of an actively cooled laboratory prototype, which is able to operate at temperatures which are higher than the temperature limit of the electronics. A different concept of heat management, compared to prior works, is presented: the design combines active and passive cooling techniques, aiming at an efficient thermal management, preserving the tool compactness and avoiding the use of moving parts. Thermoelectric coolers were used to transfer the dissipated heat from the temperature-sensitive electronics to the external environment. Thermal contact resistances were minimized and thermally insulating foam protected the refrigerated microenvironment from the hot surroundings.