Thermal management for motor

We developed three-dimensional CFD and thermal models using Fluent™ for thermal management on motor components. This paper presents simulation results for cooling fins, stator, and rotor. Fin study for motor housing was done with a single-fin flat plate model. The model was developed to reduce modeling time. We investigated the effects of various fin configurations. Our analysis showed that the maximum temperature could be reduced by either one of the following: higher fin geometry, reduced fin pitch and higher airflow velocity. Fin taper has a minor effect on cooling. We developed thermal models to simulate flow and heat transfer on ducted stator and solid rotor. The flow behavior out of ducted stator was discussed thoroughly. The flow behavior is a result of the relative magnitude between the effects of viscous loss, rotor rotation, and symmetric condition at the center of the motor.