As efficient thermal management is essential for high-speed electric vehicle (EV) motors, accurate prediction of oil cooling inside motor air-gap has become very important. This study aims at analyzing the flow and thermal characteristics in the air-g...
As efficient thermal management is essential for high-speed electric vehicle (EV) motors, accurate prediction of oil cooling inside motor air-gap has become very important. This study aims at analyzing the flow and thermal characteristics in the air-gap region and comparing the results using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) approaches. In the air-gap region, it is found that the LES case underpredicts the Taylor vortex cell size and oil mass compared to the RANS case while overpredicting flow mixing, which leads to a relatively higher heat transfer rate and lower friction loss. The observed high sensitivity of the mechanical and thermal indices to the turbulence models motivates proper selection of the turbulence model for accurate prediction of the characteristics in the air-gap region.