A HOLISTIC APPROACH OF ELECTRIC MOTOR COOLING

Introduction

Electric motors (e-motors) consume more than 40% of electricity produced globally. The EU aims to save ~40Mt of CO2 emissions per year until 2030 by deploying more efficient e-motors. E-motors are also the driving force behind EVs, currently leading the global efforts for decarbonisation of the transportation sector; their efficiency is crucial in extending EV mileage.

Challenges in Electrification

Unfortunately, electrification plans for heavy-duty, earth-moving machines and aircraft (accounting currently for ~60% of fossil fuel consumption in transportation) have to overcome, among other limitations, the technological barrier of excess heat generated in the e-motor copper windings during power-demanding operations associated with these sectors.

E-COOL Solution

E-COOL promises to address this challenge via the development of a holistic e-motor cooling technology, maximising heat transfer through direct-contact, spray cooling. E-COOL aims to achieve this technological breakthrough at time-scales compatible with those required for industrial innovation to reach the market.

Interdisciplinary Activities

E-COOL will integrate two interdisciplinary activities:

1. Development and manufacturing of novel oil-based, dilute polymer mixtures of non-Newtonian nature, which, when employed in spray-cooling thermal management systems, will be a game-changer.
2. Implementation of a universal design methodology for spray cooling, optimised with the aid of new Machine Learning (ML) algorithms.

Machine Learning Integration

Training datasets for the ML tool will be obtained by ‘ground-truth’ experimental and numerical investigations, also to be conducted for the first time in E-COOL.

Expected Outcomes

The envisioned cooling system aims to provide unprecedented cooling rates at local temperature hot spots, which can contribute to an average 20% increase in e-motor efficiency compared to today’s state-of-the-art. This will allow next-generation e-motor utilisation over the whole range of transportation sectors, thus facilitating significant additional energy and CO2 savings relative to the existing EU plans.