Investigation the effect of driving pattern on thermal performance of Nissan Leaf’s electric motor

Whereas reducing carbon pollutant and fossil fuel energy consumption have become the most important environmental and economic concerns in the world, electric vehicles and their cooling system are in automotive industry manufacturers and designers agendum more than ever. Various motor electromagnetic and mechanical losses act as heat sources and could lead to performance falloff and premature exhaustion indisputably, if they don’t dissipate by an appropriate cooling system. Thus, in present work, a model has been prepared in Motor-CAD software for Nissan LEAF’s BPM electric motor and after modelling various losses in it by means of 2D and 3D simulations with finite element method, it has been attentively investigated in terms of cooling system performance and hotspot temperatures and locations in four popular distinct standard driving cycles. It has been revealed in results that diversities in driving patterns can lead to different thermal reactions in vehicle’s electric motor. These changes can even rearrange thermal critical points and move hotspots to different parts of motor. Beside quantitative point of maximum temperatures, various transient responses have been monitored in simulations results and hotspot location moved differently in each cycle. Main novelty of the present research is clarifying the point that in order to design an efficient and suitable cooling system for electric motors in vehicles, driving pattern characteristics must be taken into account.