Effect of Channel Size on Air-Cooling Performance in Interior Permanent Magnet Motor Driving Aviation Fans at High Altitude

Abstract

To enhance worldwide environmental conditions, the air transport industry must drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Electrification of aircraft propulsion systems is one way to meet this demand. In particular, the focus is on obtaining single-aisle aircraft with partial turbo-electric propulsion and approximately 150 passenger seats by the 2030s. To develop a single-aisle aircraft with partial turbo-electric propulsion, an air-cooled interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor with an output of 2 MW is desired. One of the most difficult problems in air cooling is that air-cooling performance decreases with increasing altitude because the air density decreases. To investigate the effect of altitude on air-cooling performance in the IPM motor, the authors formulated mathematical system equations to describe heat transfer inside the target air-cooled IPM motor, and mathematical analytical solutions were obtained. The most severe condition is the top-of-climb condition. For this condition, a designer should choose cooling air mass flow rates that keep the temperature of the permanent magnets below the maximum temperature limit of 100 °C and the temperature of the coils below the maximum temperature limit of 250 °C. Here, the sizes of the air-cooling channels strongly affect air cooling with the IPM motor. In this paper, the authors briefly review the mathematical formulations and their solutions, investigate the effect of channel size on air-cooling performance in an IPM motor, and explore the optimum configuration and settings for the air cooling channels.