APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROTECTING POWER CONVERSION DEVICE

Disclosed are a protection apparatus and method for estimating thermal stress of a power conversion device and preventing damage thereto using a virtual sensor based on a reduced-order model. Thermal stress applied to a power conversion device in a vehicle is estimated using virtual sensor software without the need for any hardware sensors. When the estimated thermal stress reaches a threshold value, a control signal is output to prevent damage to the power conversion device, which is also used for device condition monitoring and failure prediction.