Additively Manufactured Hollow Coils for Stator Cooling in a Heavy-Duty Vehicle Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) Propulsion Motor

Abstract

The growing demand of electrified light duty trucks, including sports utility vehicles (SUV) require high performance motors to surpass form their internal combustion engine counterparts. The Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) Motor is expected to be one of the leading technologies to meet the demands of these industries due to its efficenct and high torque and power density. Designing a robust thermal management system for this motor is key to utilizing these performance benefits. To meet these demanding conditions, additive manufacturing is expected to play a critical role in enhancing performance. Additively manufactured hollow coil is a cooling strategy to extract heat directly from the hottest part of the motor, the stator. The following research assesses the viability of the design in a prototype motor. ANSYS CFX is used to characterize the pressure drop and flowrate, and a test setup is used to validate the results. The challenges associated with integrating the solution into a motor is highlighted as well as design issues during design development. Finally, the integration of a parallel hybrid SUV using an AFPM motor is documented and the challenges with integration into a vehicle is explained.