Thermal management integrated with three-dimensional heat pipes for air-cooled permanent magnet synchronous motor

Abstract

Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are widely used in pure or hybrid electric vehicles for transportation applications. The cooling strategy for PMSMs is still a challenge in the field of thermal engineering. This study presents a novel thermal management method/design based on phase-change heat pipes for PMSMs. Two thermal management modules (TMMs) with different heat-pipe layouts are prepared, including the straightly embedded module in an enclosure (SEME) and three-dimensional rounding module (RM). The impacts of different ambient temperature and various working condition on the cooling effectiveness of the two modules are analyzed experimentally and numerically. Experimental results show that by replacing the convectional motor stator with this heat-pipe-based enclosure component, the effective time to control the temperature of a PMSM can be prolonged by 28.6 and 21.4% when the motor operates continuously under high-speed and high-torque conditions, respectively. The peak temperature of the PMSM under rated conditions can be significantly reduced by 22.3%, which helps increase the power density of PMSMs. Besides, both experimental and simulation results show that the use of a SEME promotes higher heat dissipation ability than RM.