Review of Cooling Methods in Electric Vehicle Motors

Abstract

Recently, there is an increasing number of electric vehicles for the purpose of protection of the environment and fossil fuels. An EV motor, such as PMSM, is the key component of an electric vehicle with its merits such as high-power density, compact structures, energy-efficient, high speed and so forth. The operation of an EV motor produces a large amount of heat, resulting in its high temperature. Without effective cooling methods, terrible problems will arise such as demagnetization of the motor, short circuit risk caused by winding insulation failure, and shortening the motor lifespan. Hence, it is essential to predict and monitor the motor temperature and develop thermal management. In this review, thermal analysis methods of the motor are described and compared in detail, which comprise FEA, CFD and LPTN. Furthermore, cooling methods constitute the main part of the review which are highlighted via simulations and experiments in different research. In the end, different cooling schemes in the cited papers are summarized in a table, and conclusion and outlook are made for the guidance of future work.