An innovative slot cooling for integrated electric drives

The paper presents an innovative cooling system for electric machines. The proposed cooling system is a indirect cooling designed for a tooth coil wound machine. The cooling system is composed by additional devices designed to be easy installed in the stator slots, and to host the power electronics with the aim to allow an integrated solution. The material of the cooling devices plays an important role. The requirements of the material are reported and an optimal material is proposed. The effect on the thermal paths is studied through equivalent electric circuit model. The concept is then applied to a particular drive solution, the triple-3-phase solution designed for a traction application. The proposed concept is verified by multi-physics finite elements analysis. Simulation results are reported in order to underline the performances of the proposed cooling system.