Utilization of Additive Manufacturing in the Thermal Design of Electrical Machines: A Review

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a key technology for advancing many fields, including electrical machines. It offers unparalleled design freedom together with low material waste and fast prototyping, which is why it has become to focus of many researchers. For electrical machines, AM allows the production of designs with optimized mechanical, electromagnetic and thermal parameters. This paper attempts to give the reader an overview of the existing research and thermal solutions which have been realized with the use of AM. These include novel heat sink and heat exchanger designs, solutions for cooling the machine windings directly, and additively manufactured hollow windings. Some solutions such as heat pipes, which have been produced with AM but not used to cool electrical machines, are also discussed, as these are used in conventional designs and will certainly be used for additively manufactured electrical machines in the future.