CFD Simulation on Cooling System of Electric Vehicle BLDC Motor

In the electrical machines, detrimental effects are resulted often due to the overheating, such as insulation material degradation, demagnetization of the magnet, decreased lifetime and efficiency of the motor and increased Joule losses. Hence, by effective cooling methods, it is vital to optimize the reliability and performance of the electric motors and also to reduce the maintenance and operating costs. To identify the critical component's temperature of the motor, this research explains the 3D Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation that are performed on a enclosed air over brushless D.C. motor cooled by fan. As a heat sink, a finned casing has been used and by the use of 3 heat sink designs, the varying effect of the geometry of the fin on the performance of cooling is examined. The result shows that at the end windings, the highest temperature occurs and by introducing a suitable finned housing, this temperature could be minimized up to 15%. These results show that to improve electric motors' cooling performance, the CFD technique could be used effectively. Experimental tests are undergone to prove CFD results.