Design and Evaluation of Airflow Cooling System for High-Power-Density Motor for Robotic Applications

Due to increase in aging societies, the use of robots for human assistance has become the subject of most research focus. A necessary feature of these human assistance robots is flexibility. In order to provide mechanical flexibility, small-size and lightweight components are use in their construction. Unfortunately, small-size electric motors provide limited facility for heat dissipation. In this research, a new structural design for electric motors, with cooling support based on airflow, is proposed. The cooling structure is designed for a high power-density motor rated at 2kW, 40Arms, 15000 min^-1 speed with 2 pole pairs surface permanent magnet. It is evaluated by performing a detailed thermal analysis of the machine using Lumped parameter thermal network model (LPTN), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques.