Applied Thermal Engineering 126 (2017) 1156–1163

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Electric motor thermal management system using L-shaped flat heat

pipes q
Nandy Putra ⇑, Bambang Ariantara
Applied Heat Transfer Research Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, 16424 Depok, Jawa Barat, Indonesia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Heat generation in an electric motor will increase its temperature. The excessive working temperature
Received 1 September 2016 will reduce the motor performance and shorten its lifetime, therefore, a thermal management system
Revised 9 December 2016 is needed to reduce the working temperature. The objective of this study is to determine the performance
Accepted 25 January 2017
of the electric motor thermal management system using L-shaped flat heat pipes experimentally.
Available online 1 February 2017
Evaporator sections of heat pipes are typically placed inside the motor housing or buried in the motor
shaft while the condenser sections are placed outside the motor housing and cooled with circulated liq-
Keywords:
uid or air stream. However, in this study, the heat pipes were placed on the surface of the motor housing
Electric motor
Flat plate heat pipes
thus simplifying installation and maintenance. A prototype was made of a 0.5 HP conventional electric
Thermal resistance motor where the rotor and the coil were replaced by a cartridge heater to simulate the heat generation
Thermal management system and to simplify the heat generation adjustment. Eight pieces of L-shaped flat heat pipes were mounted on
this prototype. Each evaporator section was mounted on a heat pipe holder that was inserted between
the motor fins. Each condenser section was placed in front of the motor fan. Heat sinks were mounted
on each condenser section to increase the rate of heat transfer to the ambient air. The heat pipes were
made of flattened copper tubes with sintered copper capillary wick and water as working fluid with a fill-
ing ratio of 50%. Experiments were conducted with varied heating power while the fan speed was kept
constant. The thermal resistance of the motor fins - heat pipe - heat sink did not change much with
the heat load. It reached a minimum value of 0.28 °C/W at the heat load of 150 W. The motor surface tem-
perature was reduced from 102.2 °C to 68.4 °C or a reduction by 33.8 °C.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Heat generation that occurs in the process of energy conversion
in an electric motor will increase its temperature. The excessive
working temperature will reduce the motor performance and
shorten its lifetime. A thermal management system is needed to
reduce the working temperature of the electric motor.
The heat generation inside electric motor consists of Joule
losses, iron losses, mechanical losses, and stray load losses [1].
Joule losses associated with the conversion of electric energy into
thermal energy that occurs in an electrical conducting material
such as copper winding of the stator. Joule losses can be expressed
by I2R, where I is the electric current, and R is the electric resistance
of the conductor. Iron losses associated with the conversion of
electric energy into thermal energy in the iron. This loss consists
q
This paper is an extended and revised article presented at the Joint 18th IHPC
and 12th IHPS, Jeju, Korea, June 12–16, 2016.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: nandyputra@eng.ui.ac.id (N. Putra).
of hysteresis and eddy current losses or Joule losses in the iron.
Mechanical losses primarily related to the conversion of mechanical
energy into thermal energy due to mechanical friction and viscous
friction. Stray load losses are minor losses of which include losses
related to skin effect and high frequencies, which are difficult to
evaluate. Bousbaine [2] have studied the development of the
thermal model of induction motors based on accurate loss density
distribution to predict the temperature rise of a machine prior to
construction. This study was taking into account the different
material types and complicated geometries within the machine,
as well as the different modes of heat transfer.
The conventional method of electric motor cooling is typically
by using fins mounted on the outer surface of the motor housing.
The fins serve to expand the surface area of the motor housing to
increase the rate of heat transfer from the electric motor to the
ambient air by convection. Installation of the fins is usually accom-
panied by the installation of the fan at one end of the motor shaft.
The fan serves to draw air through the fins so as to increase the rate
of convection heat transfer. Several studies have been conducted to
improve the performance of the conventional thermal manage-

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.01.090
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 N. Putra, B. Ariantara / Applied Thermal Engineering 126 (2017) 1156–1163 1157

Nomenclature

g gravity acceleration (m/s2) To average inner surface temperature (°C)

Q_ heat transfer rate, heat load (W) To1 outer surface temperature at front side (°C)
R thermal resistance (°C/W) To2 outer surface temperature at center (°C)
Ra Rayleigh number To3 outer surface temperature at rear side (°C)
T temperature (°C) a thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
T1 ambient temperature (°C) b volumetric thermal expansion coefficient (K1)
Ti1 inner surface temperature at front side (°C) m kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
Ti2 inner surface temperature at center (°C)
To3 inner surface temperature at rear side (°C)

ment of electric motors. Farsane et al. [3] conducted an experimen-

tal study on the cooling of a closed type electric motor. Li [4]
proposed a design modification for performance improvements
of cooling of a permanent magnet electric motor with a centrifugal
impeller. Davin [5] conducted an experimental study on the use of
lubricating oil as a coolant for electrical motors. For electric motors
with high heat generation, some other technique can be applied to
release the heat to the ambient air. One example is the electric
motor cooling method using a cooling fluid flowed through a jacket
placed between the stator and motor housing. The use of cooling
liquid aims to improve the effectiveness of cooling of the electric
motor. Lee [6] studied the development of a motor cooling system
that employs a forced cooling method by providing channels for
housing cooling and a hollow shaft for rotor cooling.
Heat pipes are thermal devices which have high heat transfer
capacity with compact size and light weight, and they do not
require any external power supply [7]. Putra et al. [8–10], Weng
(a) Electric Motor with Heat Pipes [17]
et al. [11], and Wang [12] have conducted studies on the use of
heat pipes in the thermal management of electronic devices. Study
on the use of heat pipes in the thermal management of an electric
vehicle battery has also been conducted [13]. Putra et al. also con-
ducted research on the development of the heat pipe capillary wick
combined with nanofluid as the working fluid [14–16]. Their
results showed that the combination of biomaterial wick and
nanofluid working fluid enhances the thermal performance of heat
pipes.
Currently, heat pipes are widely used in the thermal manage-
ment of mobile devices such as laptops and mobile phones. Some
of the inventions of the electric motor cooling using heat pipes
have been patented. In some electric motor cooling applications,
evaporator sections of heat pipes are placed inside the motor hous-
ing or buried in the motor shaft, while the condenser sections are
placed outside the motor housing and cooled with circulated liquid
or air stream.
Hasset et al. [17] through the patent with publication number
US7569955 B2, dated August 4, 2009, entitled ‘‘Electric Motor with
(b) Rotor Assembly with Heat Pipe Cooling System [20]
Heat Pipes,” claimed an invention of the electric motor cooling Fig. 1. Patents of electric motor cooling system using heat pipes.
method using straight heat pipes. In their invention, the evaporator
side of the heat pipes is placed inside the motor housing, while the
condenser side is placed in a cooling chamber containing a coolant shaft, the condenser of the heat pipes is placed on the impeller. The
which is circulated using a pump as shown in Fig. 1a. The draw- disadvantage of this method is that the heat pipes are located
back of this method is that the heat pipe is located inside the motor around the electric motor shaft so as to risk damaging the con-
housing, so there is a risk for motor damage due to the heat pipe struction of the electric motor in the event of a leak. Moreover,
leakage. Moreover, the heat pipes are difficult to repair in case of the heat pipes are difficult to repair in case of damage. This method
damage. This method requires a special design to put the heat requires a special motor design to put the heat pipe around the
pipes in the electric motor housing. Also, this method requires electric motor shaft.
some external power supply to circulate the coolant. Rubby et al. [19] in the patent entitled ‘‘Cooling of an Electric
Owng et al. [18] through the patent numbered US 8368265 B2, Motor via Heat Pipes,” publication number US 2014/0338857 A1,
published on February 5, 2013, entitled ‘‘Electric Motor Having dated on November 20, 2014, also use straight heat pipes which
Heat Pipes,” claimed an invention of the electric motor cooling the evaporator section installed in the motor housing and the con-
using straight heat pipes. They put the heat pipes around the motor denser section placed in the cooling tank.
1158 N. Putra, B. Ariantara / Applied Thermal Engineering 126 (2017) 1156–1163
Fedoseyev et al. [20] through the patent numbered US
2014/0368064 A1, dated on December 18, 2014, entitled ‘‘Rotor
Assembly with Heat Pipe Cooling System” claimed an invention
on the electric motor cooling using straight heat pipes. They put
the evaporator side of the heat pipe inside the shaft while the con-
denser side equipped with the cooling fins is placed outside the
motor as shown in Fig. 1b. The disadvantage of this method is that
the heat pipes are located within the shaft so that it can be a risky
construction damaging the electric motor in the event of a leak.
Moreover, the heat pipes are difficult to repair in case of damage.
The motor shaft requires a special design to put the heat pipes
inside the shaft.
In this study, the heat pipes are placed on the surface of the
motor housing thus simplifying installation and maintenance.
The objective of this study is to determine the performance of
the electric motor thermal management system using L-shaped flat
heat pipes experimentally.
2. Methods
The L-shaped flat heat pipes were made of flattened copper
tubes with sintered copper capillary wick. Water was used as the
working fluid with a filling ratio of 50%. Each heat pipe had
evaporator section length of 154 mm and condenser section length
of 34 mm as shown in Fig. 2. Heat sinks were mounted on each
condenser section to increase the rate of heat transfer from the
condenser section to the ambient air.
Fig. 2. L-shaped flat heat pipe.
A prototype was made of a 0.5 HP conventional electric motor
where the rotor and the coil were replaced by a cartridge heater
to simulate the heat generation and to simplify the heat generation
adjustment. This quite small electric motor was selected to facili-
tate the manufacture of the prototype. The cartridge heater was
placed inside a heater housing made of aluminum alloy. On the
outside of the heater housing, there was a cylinder made of stain-
less steel. Eight pieces of L-shaped flat heat pipes were mounted on
this prototype. Flat heat pipes were used instead of round heat
pipes considering that the available spaces between fins are fairly
narrow. The narrow gaps allow larger flat heat pipes to be used to
provide more contact surface. The evaporator section of the heat
pipes was mounted on a heat pipe holders that were inserted
between the motor fins. Each condenser section was placed on
one side of the motor, in front of the fan. Fig. 3 shows the prototype
of the electric motor thermal management system using L-shaped
flat heat pipe.
The heat pipe holders were made of aluminum alloy. Fig. 4
shows the detailed view of the installation of the heat pipes on
the motor fins using the heat pipe holders.
The heat generation was adjusted using an AC voltage regulator.
Six k-type thermocouples with a diameter of 0.3 mm were used to
measure the inner and outer surface temperature of the cylinder.
The measurement system was equipped with a National Instru-
ment Data Acquisition Module NI DAQ 9214, that was mounted
on a National Instrument Chassis NI cDAQ 9174 for temperature
measurement and a YOKOGAWA WT310 digital power meter for
1. Motor housing 6. Fan
2. Fin 7. Heat sink
3. Heat pipe holder 8. Steel cylinder
4. Heat pipe 9. Heater housing
5. Fan mounting 10. Cartridge heater
Fig. 3. The prototype of the electric motor thermal management system using L-
shaped flat heat pipes.
 N. Putra, B. Ariantara / Applied Thermal Engineering 126 (2017) 1156–1163 1159

Fig. 4. Installation of the heat pipes on the motor fins using heat pipe holders.

electric power measurement. A DC power supply was used to drive Fig. 6. Thermocouples placement.
the fan. Fig. 5 shows the schematic of the experimental setup.
There were three thermocouples, Ti1, Ti2, and Ti3, on the inner
surface, and three thermocouples, To1, To2, and To3, on the outer sur- and selected measuring range of 600 W. The smallest heating
face. Three thermocouples on each surface were used to examine power for most experiments is 30 W, hence the maximum relative
whether the surface temperature was uniform. High thermal error of the heating power is 2.1%.
conductivity paste was used to minimise thermal contact resis- The thermal resistance R, from motor surface to the ambient air
tances. Fig. 6 shows the placement of the thermocouples for the can be calculated using
temperature measurement.
The experiments were conducted with the heating power of To  T1
R¼ ð1Þ
30 W, 60 W, 90 W, 120 W, and 150 W while the fan speed was kept Q_
constant. The heat load that may occur in a 0.5–1 hp electric motor
In which, T o is the motor surface temperature, T 1 is the ambient air
with a minimum nominal efficiency of 78% is about 82–165 W. Fig. 7
shows the implementation of the experiments in the laboratory. temperature, and Q_ is the heat power. The maximum relative error
The motor surface temperature, T o , and ambient air temperature, of thermal resistance is 4.3%.
T 1 , are measured by using National Instrument Data Acquisition
System with 0.3 mm K-type thermocouple with an accuracy 3. Results and discussion
of±0.1 °C. The smallest temperature difference between the motor
surface and the ambient air for most experiments is 9 °C, so the max- 3.1. Temperature and heat load measurement
imum relative error of the temperature difference, T o  T 1 , is 2.2%.
The heating power, Q_ , is measured by using Yokogawa digital The experiments were conducted in the laboratory at a
power meter with an accuracy of±(0.1% of reading + 0.1% of range) temperature of 24 – 25 °C. They started with a heat load of 30 W.

Fig. 5. Schematic of experimental setup.

1160 N. Putra, B. Ariantara / Applied Thermal Engineering 126 (2017) 1156–1163

Fig. 7. Implementation of experiments in the laboratory.

The heating was conducted until the steady state condition was
achieved. About ten minutes after the steady state condition was
achieved the heat load was increased to 60 W. This procedure
was repeated for the heat load of 90 W, 120 W, and 150 W. The
experiments were done twice, the first without using heat pipes,
and the second by using heat pipes. Fig. 8 shows the results of
the measurement of the temperatures and the heat load. It can
be seen that the ambient air temperature in both experiments
was quite similar, although it slightly fluctuated. The heat load also
fluctuated due to the fluctuation of the electric voltage. The fluctu-
ation in the heat load seems higher at the high heat load values.
The heat load fluctuation increased rapidly with the voltage
because the heater power is a quadratic function of the voltage.
The temperature of the inner surface of the cylinder was
uniform at each heat load. The temperature of the outer surface
of the cylinder was also uniform except at the high heat load value
where the temperature at the center was slightly higher than at the
front and rear side. It can be caused by the heat transfer in the axial
direction that increase with the heat load.
3.2. Steady state temperature versus heat load

Without Heat Pipes The steady state temperatures were obtained by averaging the
140 temperature values in the last ten minutes of the steady state per-
Ti1: Inner Surface 1
Ti1, Ti2, Ti3
Ti2: Inner Surface 2 180 iod. Fig. 9 shows the steady state temperature of the inner surface
120 Ti3: Inner Surface 3
To1: Outer Surface 1 Heat Load and outer surface of the cylinder at each heat load, without and
To2: Outer Surface 2 To2 150 with the heat pipe cooling system. The steady state temperature
100 To3: Outer Surface 3 To3 of the prototype, which was represented by the temperature of
Temperature (°C)

Ta: Ambient
Heat Load (W)

To1 the inner and outer surfaces of the cylinder, increased with the
Heat Load 120
80 heat load. It is in line with the expectations where the higher
90 the heat load, the higher the temperature difference between the
60 motor surface and the surrounding air is required to release the
60 heat to the ambient air.
40 For both experiments, with and without heat pipes, the temper-
Ta 30 ature of the inner surface of the cylinder was uniform at each heat
20 load. Meanwhile, the temperature of the outer surface of the cylin-
0 der was slightly spread, especially at the high heat load. It can be
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Time (hr)
With Heat Pipes
100
With Heat Pipes Ti1: Inner SUrface 1 Ti1, Ti2, Ti3
100
Ti1: Inner Surface 1 210 Ti2: Inner Surface 2
Ti1, Ti2, Ti3
Ti2: Inner Surface 2 Ti3: Inner Surface 3
90
Ti3: Inner Surface 3 To1: Outer Surface 1
180 80
To1: Outer Surface 1 To2: Outer Surface 2
80 Heat Load
To2: Outer Surface 2 To3: Outer Surface 3 To2
Temperature (°C)

150
Temperature (°C)

To3: Outer Surface 3 To3

Ta: Ambient
Heat Load (W)

70 Ta: Ambient To2

To3 To1
Heat Load 120 60
60 To1
90
50

40 60 40

30 30 Ta
Ta

20 0 20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Time (hr) Heat Load (W)

Fig. 8. Temperature and heat load measurement. Fig. 9. Steady state temperature vs. heat load.
 N. Putra, B. Ariantara / Applied Thermal Engineering 126 (2017) 1156–1163
caused by local variations in heat transfer coefficient at the motor
surface due to geometry and ambient air condition.
The steady state temperature of the inner and outer surface of
the cylinder was averaged to obtain a comprehensive picture of
the effect of the heat pipes implementation. The average tempera-
ture of the case without heat pipes is compared to the case with
heat pipes. Fig. 10 shows the effect of heat pipe implementation
in the electric motor thermal management system using L-
shaped flat heat pipes. In Fig. 10, the superscript ⁄ represents the
case of with heat pipes implementation.
The temperature of the inner and outer surface of the cylinder
increases with the heat load. At the heat load of 150 W without
heat pipes, the temperature of the inner and outer surface of the
cylinder reach 126 °C and 102.2 °C, respectively. The use of the
L-shaped flat heat pipes reduces the inner and outer surface of
the cylinder to 91.4 °C and 68.4 °C, or a reduction by 34.6 °C and
33.8 °C, respectively.
Lee et al. [6] used water jacket and hollow shaft with a 170 mm
stator diameter motor run at a speed of 2300 rpm and torque of
7.38 N m, i.e. about 1.78 kW. Assuming the motor has an efficiency
of 90%, then the heat load is about 180 W. The use of heat pipes
was capable of reducing the motor housing temperature to 68 °C
at heat load 150 W with a stator diameter of 100 mm. Meanwhile,
a water jacket-cooled and a hollow shaft-cooled motor were able
to reduce the motor housing temperature to 43 °C and 40 °C
respectively at a heat load about 180 W with a stator diameter of
170 mm.
The use of heat pipes on the outer surface of motor housing
does not appear as good as the two last methods. However, it
should be noted that the motor diameter is only about 58% of
the last so it has less surface area to release heat to the ambient
air. Also, the use of heat pipes on the outer surface of motor hous-
ing does not require a considerable design changes of the motor.
Moreover, it is a passive system that requires no external power
supply. These results show that the electric motor thermal man-
agement system using L-shaped flat heat pipes is capable of pro-
viding significant temperature reduction.
3.3. Thermal resistance
In the conventional thermal management system, heat from the
motor is transferred from the surface of the motor fins to the ambi-
ent air. Fig. 11 shows the schematic of the motor fins and the ther-
mal circuit for the conventional thermal management system
Ti: Inner Surface (without heat pipes)
To: Outer Surface (without heat pipes)
140 Ta: Ambient (without heat pipes)
Ti*: Inner Surface (with heat pipes)
T*o: Outer Surface (with heat pipes)
120 T*a: Ambient (with heat pipes)
Temperature (°C)
100
80
60
40
20
20 40 60 80 100 120
Heat Load (W)
Fig. 10. Effect of heat pipe implementation.
1161
using the motor fins. The thermal resistance between the surface
of the motor and the ambient air can be represented by:
To  T1
R ¼ Rf ¼ ð2Þ
Q_
In Eq. (2) Rf is the thermal resistance of the motor fins; To is the
motor fins base temperature; T1 is the ambient air temperature,
and Q_ is the heat transfer rate.
Fig. 12 shows the schematic of the motor fins with heat pipes
and the thermal circuit for the thermal management system using
L-shaped flat heat pipes. A parallel resistance of heat pipes - heat
sinks is now added to the thermal circuit reducing the thermal
resistance between the motor surface and the ambient air. The
thermal resistance can be expressed as:
R0f Rhp T 0o  T 1
R0 ¼ ¼ ð3Þ
R0f þ Rhp Q_
In Eq. (3) R0f is the thermal resistance of the motor fins; Rhp is the
0
thermal resistance of the heat pipes - heat sinks; To is the motor fins
base temperature, T1 is the ambient air temperature and Q_ is the
heat transfer rate. For the same heat load, the lower thermal resis-
tance between the motor surface and the ambient air resulted in the
lower motor surface temperature, To.
0
Fig. 13 shows the thermal resistance as a function of the heat
load. The thermal resistance of the conventional motor fins
decreases with the heat load while the thermal resistance of the
motor fins - heat pipes -heat sinks is almost constant.
There was natural convection heat transfer from the vertical
plane on the back cover side and other surfaces which are located
beyond the influence of the fan. The thermal resistance associated
with forced convection can be assumed as constant. However, the
increase in heat power will raise the surface temperature and
Ti
To
T*i
T*o
Ta, T*a
140 160
Fig. 11. Thermal resistance from the motor fins to the ambient air.
1162 N. Putra, B. Ariantara / Applied Thermal Engineering 126 (2017) 1156–1163

The use of heat pipes caused a significant decrease in the total

thermal resistance. The rise of surface temperature of the motor
became lower than without heat pipes. Thus, the reduction of
the natural convection thermal resistance could not be as much
as without heat pipes. Also, although thermal paste was already
used, micro gaps that exist between the heat pipes and the heat
pipe holders and between the pipe holders and the motor fins
could cause a fairly high contact resistance. This contact resistance
would dominate the total thermal resistance. Therefore, the total
thermal resistance of motor fins with heat pipes did not change
much and practically constant with increasing heat load.
At the heat load of 150 W, the thermal resistance of the motor
fins and the thermal resistance of motor fins with heat pipes and
heat sinks reaches the minimum value of 0.5 °C/W and 0.28 °C/
W, respectively, or a decrease of 44%.

4. Conclusions

The experiment to determine the performance of the electric

motor thermal management system using L-shaped flat heat pipe
has been conducted successfully. At the heat load of 150 W, the
outer surface temperatures of the motor can be decreased from
102.2 °C to 68.4 °C, or a decrease by 33.8 °C. At the heat load of
150 W, the thermal resistance from the motor fins with heat pipes
and heat sinks to the ambient air can be reduced from 0.5 °C/W to
0.28 °C/W or a reduction by 44%. The use of L-shaped flat heat
pipes can significantly reduce the temperature of the motor.

Acknowledgement

Fig. 12. Thermal resistance from the motor fins with heat pipes and heat sinks to The authors would like to thank the DRPM (Directorate of
the ambient air. Research and Community Service) Universitas Indonesia for fund-
ing the research.
0.6
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