Modification of the In-Wheel Motor Housing and Its Effect on Temperature Reduction

Abstract

This research proposes a novel cooling system to minimize the external rotor type of electric motor temperature by installing fan blades (wafters) on the inner housing of the electric motor. Fan blades (wafters) are made by printing using 3D printer technology and using polylactic acid (PLA) as the material. Wafters are then installed on an in-wheel motor with a power of 1500 W, having 48 poles and 52 slots. The study included thermal simulation and experimental techniques to ascertain how fan blades (wafters) affected the electric motor’s thermal properties. The motor rotated at 500 rpm during the experimental test with no load condition. The temperature of the electric motor is known using an infrared thermal imager. Using Ansys Motor-CAD 15.1 software, thermal modeling employs the lumped circuit model approach. Thermal simulation results show almost the same results as the experimental test results. Applying wafters on the in-wheel motor housing significantly reduces the winding temperature by 3.047 °C or experiences a temperature reduction of 4.34%. Using wafters in the in-wheel motor housing also speeds up the stable state temperature of the electric motor by 9 min compared to in-wheel motors without wafters.