CFD Analysis of Structural Impact on Water Channel Cooling Efficiency in Electric Vehicle Motors

The primary performance criteria for the motor cooling system in electric vehicles are pressure loss and heat exchange efficiency. This research focuses on the performance of different designs is limited and the lack of a systematic design standard complicates the initial water channel design process. To address these challenges, two widely used designs of water channels (tiled and spiral channels) were selected for investigation. By using theoretical equations, a parameterization investigation has been conducted based on the water channel’s cycle number and section dimensions. The results indicated that the cycle number of channels has a more significant impact on thermal and hydraulic performance compared to the channel section dimensions. Additionally, pressure loss increases significantly for channel dimensions below a certain critical value and decreases as dimensions exceed this critical value; this value has been investigated in detail. Furthermore, computational fluid dynamics analysis using Ansys Fluent yielded results consistent with the theoretical method.