Cooling Technologies for High Power Density Electrical Machines for Aviation Applications
Institute of Electrical Machines, Traction and Drives; TU Braunschweig; 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
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Energies 2019, 12(23), 4579; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12234579
Received: 17 September 2019 / Revised: 22 November 2019 / Accepted: 26 November 2019 / Published: 1 December 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Electrical Power and Energy System)
This paper is aimed at giving an overview of possible cooling technologies for electrical machines and their assessment for aviation applications, e.g., fan or propeller drives. The most important demand for aircraft is the minimization of the drive system weight comprising electrical machine, power electronics, and the cooling system. The potential of aluminum winding an overview about several cooling technologies with the Rankine or Brayton cycle or utilizing the phase change of the cooling fluid is given. As an alternative approach, the cooling structure inside the machine is studied. A very interesting potential was discovered with direct slot cooling (DSC) removing the heat where it is produced and, thus, simplifying the cooling system effort and its weight. Since it is one of the most promising approaches, this cooling method is studied in depth. Furthermore, it can also be combined with one of the cooling technologies discussed above.
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Keywords:
electric aircraft propulsion; electric aircraft drives; cooling systems for electric machines in aviation; direct slot cooling; cooling fluids; phase change; thermodynamic cycles
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MDPI and ACS Style
Canders, W.-R.; Hoffmann, J.; Henke, M. Cooling Technologies for High Power Density Electrical Machines for Aviation Applications. Energies 2019, 12, 4579.
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