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Wilkins, Jon

Publications and source records attributed to Wilkins, Jon.

14 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Thermal Management System of an Outer-Rotor-Motor-Based Traction Drive With Integrated Power Electronics in its Central Cavity

Increasing power densities of electric vehicle traction drive systems necessitates combining the electric motor and the power electronics into one unit. A compact, integrated traction drive unit with fewer components also drives production costs down, enabling wider adoption of electric vehicles. However, the integration of power electronics in the electric machine is associated with challenges of designing an effective thermal management solution for the combined traction drive system. This paper focuses on the thermal management approach selected for Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s outer-rotor-motor-based integrated traction drive and evaluates its potential performance. The outer-rotor-motor configuration provided an opportunity for integration of the six-phase inverter in the available space in the central cavity of the internal stator. A cylindrical inverter enclosure with integrated coolant (water-ethylene glycol) channels in its walls was designed to enable heat removal from the power electronics. Numerical thermal-fluid modeling and initial channel/fin optimization results for the cylindrical heat sink are presented here. As permanent magnets are integrated in a high-speed (20 000 RPM) outer rotor, forced air convection provides cooling for the magnets. The magnets were segmented axially to mitigate the eddy current losses. Heat generated in the stator windings and laminations is removed by water-ethylene glycol coolant circulating in interpolar T-shape ceramic heat exchangers inserted between windings. General design concepts and numerical thermal-fluid simulations illustrating the electric motor thermal management solution are also presented.

Kekelia, Bidzina↗
DOE OSTI2023

An Integrated Traction Drive with a High Speed Surface Permanent Magnet External Rotor Motor for Electric Vehicles

This work presents the detailed design of an outer rotor motor and integrated drive for passenger electric vehicles. The motor uses non-heavy rare earth permanent magnets and operates at a top speed of 20,000rpm. In-slot ceramic heat exchangers are utilized for the cooling of the windings. The external rotor configuration of the motor leaves a significant amount of space in the stator bore, which is leveraged for the integration of the power electronics. A high speed external rotor motor creates a number of mechanical, thermal and assembly challenges and this work presents detailed thermal, mechanical and rotordynamics analysis.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Single and Double-Sided Jet Impingement Cooling for SiC-Based Power Modules

Efficient thermal management of power electronics systems is crucial for higher reliability. With the miniaturization of systems, high-loss-density electronics require cooling systems that can extract a large amount of heat. This study explored a liquid-jet-impingement-based direct substrate cooling system for single-sided and double-sided cooling to improve heat extraction efficiency and improve the power density by reducing the volume and mass. The cooling system was implemented for a SiC-based direct bonded copper substrate. Numerical simulations were performed to determine the effects of nozzle diameter, the number of nozzles, and nozzle array orientation on single-sided cooling and thermal performance gain over double-sided cooling. A novel manifold design was proposed that reduced the volume and mass of the manifold and still achieved the target power density. The performance of the proposed design was compared with the pin-fin-based cooling system used in the BMW I3 module, and a comparative analysis was done.

Barua, Himel↗
DOE OSTI2023

A High-Power Density Segmented Traction Drive Inverter

High power density is one of the requirements for traction drive inverters for meeting increasing demand for higher power and performance electrical vehicles (EV). This paper presents design and preliminary experimental results for a 100 kW high-power density inverter for EV traction drive applications. The inverter design was based on the segmented inverter topology that can significantly reduce the inverter DC filter capacitor and employs low-profile planar double-sided cooled SiC MOSFET-based power modules, compact mini-channel heat sinks with fin-profile optimized using genetic-algorithms, and high-ripple current capacitors. The design produced a compact inverter package with a total volume less than 1 litter, exceeding the power density goal of 100 kW/L. Experimental results are included to demonstrate the cooling and electrical performance.

Su, Gui-Jia↗
DOE OSTI2023

Self-Resonant Coil Design for High-frequency High-Power Inductive Wireless Power Transfer

In this paper, the design methodology of a high-frequency, high-power, long-distance inductive wireless power transfer (WPT) is presented. The airgap (d) of a traditional high-power (>1 kW) WPT is limited to a few hundred millimeters, which is almost 1/4th of the coil diameter, D; d ≤ D/4. In this paper, the power transfer distance is significantly increased (d ≥ 1.5D) by adopting a high-frequency magnetic design and GaN-based power electronics. The material and design of the coil and shield are investigated using FEA and tested experimentally. A high frequency 6.78 MHz wireless charging system was built to transfer 1 kW power over 3 m airgap.

Mohammad, Mostak↗
DOE OSTI2022

A 100-kW Wireless Power Transfer System Development Using Polyphase Electromagnetic Couplers

Wireless power transfer (WPT) is an essential technology enabling automated charging of electric vehicles with safety, convenience, and flexibility while having high efficiencies. High-power wireless charging systems will be one of the dominating charging technologies for electric vehicles (EVs) in an effort to eliminate range anxiety and reduce charging times similar to that of gas station refueling practice. Polyphase electromagnetic coupler with rotating fields is a new bipolar wireless charging pad technology that can significantly increase the surface power density (kW/m2) of wireless charging coils. This study proposes a 100-kW wireless power transfer system with a compact vehicle-side (receiver) coupler that reaches to about 0.905 MW/m2 surface power density with a transmitter rated for up to 300 kW with 0.68 MW/m2. High-frequency power electronics including the inverter and rectifier designs are included in this digest along with the hardware prototype developments and preliminary experimental results.

Onar, Omer↗
DOE OSTI2022

Thermal Design and Optimization of High- Power Wireless Charging System

In this paper, the thermal design and optimization of a high-power wireless charging system (WCS) is proposed. An integrated electromagnetic and thermal co-optimization is essential to design a high power-density WCS pad. This study presents the thermal analysis and the potential optimization scopes for a polyphase WCS pad. The coil and core causes most of the power losses of a WCS pad and causes thermal hotspot in the pad. In this paper, the thermally conductive epoxy is introduced to balance the effective volumetric loss density in the pad and mitigate the thermal hotspots in the coil and core. The proposed design is simulated through finite element analysis (FEA) and tested experimentally for a 50 kW three-phase WCS. Simulation and experimental results show that the conventional design has localized hotspots in the coil and core. The proposed thermal design mitigates the thermal hotspots without increasing the coil or core volume.

Mohammad, Mostak↗
DOE OSTI2021

Three-Phase LCC-LCC Compensated 50-kW Wireless Charging System with Non-Zero Interphase Coupling

In this paper, an LCC-LCC compensated 50 kW 3phase (3φ) wireless charging system with nonzero interphase mutual inductance is demonstrated. The 3φ-LCC compensation is designed considering a nonzero mutual-inductance among the phase-coils to meet resonance criteria, balance voltages and currents of the resonant tank components, achieve desired voltage gain, and ensure the zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation. An experimental prototype of the 3φ-LCC-LCC compensation circuit is built for a 50 kW bipolar coil-based 3φ wireless charging system. The prototype system was tested at rated 50 kW power for evaluating the efficiency, ZVS operation, electric and magnetic field emissions, and thermal characteristics. The experimental results show 94.3% dc-to-dc efficiency and only 4.4 μT rms magnetic field emission at the rated 50 kW output power.

Mohammad, Mostak↗
DOE OSTI2021

Analysis of Magnetic Field Emissions and Shield Requirements for Interoperating High-Power EV Wireless Charging System

In this study, the magnetic field emission (MFE) is investigated for matching (identical primary and secondary couplers) and interoperating (different couplers) 11 kW wireless charging systems (WCS). The interoperating charging pads generate higher MFE than the matching charging-pads; hence, using interoperable couplers requires a more effective shielding. In this work, different shield topologies are investigated to suppress the MFE for interoperable conditions. Four 11 kW WCSs with the unipolar (uni) and bipolar (bi) transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) pads has been investigated: 1) uniTx with uniRx, 2) uniTx with biRx, 3) biTx with uniRx, and 4) biTx with bi-Rx. The studied systems are designed for 11 kW WPT3 level with Z2 airgap class (140-150 mm) resembling the standard SAE-J2954. The WCSs are simulated in finite element analysis (FEA) and validated experimentally using a 11 kW biTx-biRx system. The experimental results match with the simulation results with <5% error. The FEA results show that a biTx needs a magnetic shield, and a uniTx needs an aluminum shield to meet the MFE under all interoperability and alignment conditions.

Mohammad, Mostak↗
DOE OSTI2021

Thermal Analysis of a 50 kW Three-Phase Wireless Charging System

In this paper, the thermal analysis of a 50 kW three-phase wireless charging system (WCS) is presented. Addressing the thermal challenge is essential for designing a compact charging pad for 50 kW and higher-power WCS pads. Low thermal conductivity of the Litz wire and ferrite, and uneven distribution of the coil, and core loss cause the high temperature in the charging pads. In this paper, the loss distribution of a 50 kW three-phase WCS is investigated, and the temperature distribution is simulated using finite element analysis (FEA) considering the magnetic and non-magnetic materials of a charging pad. The thermal characteristics of an extremely high-power density 50 kW WCS prototype are tested experimentally for 10 minutes of operation. The simulation and experimental results show that the coil temperature increases to 65°C, the core temperature varies between 50°C to 150°C, and the packaging temperature increases to 65°C after 10 minutes of operation at rated 50 kW output power.

Mohammad, Mostak↗