Flow analysis through center body of ducted fan to electric motor cooling

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft (eVTOL) have been increasingly researched and developed because of their high applicability: parcels and deliveries, rescue, military, etc. These flying machines typically use an Electric Ducted Fan (EDF) driven by an Electric Motor located within the Centre Body of this EDF. In this study, several ventilation hole concepts on the Centre Body were given to increase the cooling ability of the Electric Motor. Two-way heat transfer method were implemented to simulate the conductive and convective heat transfer phenomenon between the Computational Fluid Dynamics and Finite Element models in the cases with and without the ventilation holes. The validation of the model’s accuracy was done by comparing separately the simulation results of the EDF and the Electric Motor with the experiment data and the previous research result, respectively. The results show that the most effective ventilation hole configuration has reduced the temperature of the Rotor, End-Winding Forward, and End-Winding Rear respectively 6.66 °C, 5.54 °C, and 6.8 °C.