ELECTRIC MOTOR COOLING ANALYSIS USING NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES

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ELECTRIC MOTOR COOLING ANALYSIS USING NUMERICAL
AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES

Background
Pressure Tap Locations
Cooling of automotive electric motors is critical
for efficient performance, increased product
life, and cost effectiveness.
Objective
Experimental airflow chamber schematic
To determine if CFD is adequate to resolve the
flow through the fan support hub. The
simulations will be validated with the
experimental measurements taken from the flow
chamber.
Fan support hub and electric motor currently
under investigation
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Research Carried Out
Simulations have been conducted comparing
different hub configurations at various flow
rates and rotational speeds with favourable
static pressure results to the experiments at low
and mid range speeds but unresolved discrepancies
exist at high rotational speed.
Comparison of experimental vs. CFD pressure
measurements
Key Findings
To date, CFD has proven to be reliable at
replicating some experimental data. However
replication of the full flow range is needed
before proceeding with new geometries or
prototypes.
Pressure field on half of fan support hub. Red is
high pressure, blue is low.