Electric Drive Unit Cooling Jacket With Turbulence-Generating Insert
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooling devices for electric drive units in motor vehicles are costly to produce due to complex geometries required for effective cooling, particularly in meandering cooling ducts that generate turbulent flows for enhanced cooling capacity.
Innovation Solution
A cooling device with a housing forming a cooling jacket around the drive unit components, featuring a cooling duct with a simple geometry that can be enhanced by inserting a fibrous woven fabric cooling structure to increase flow resistance and generate turbulences, thereby improving cooling capacity without the need for complex manufacturing processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If meandering cooling geometries are used in one-piece cooling housings to guarantee sufficient cooling capacity, then cooling performance is improved, but production costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling device is divided into a housing and a separate cooling structure that can be inserted into the housing. This segmentation allows the cooling structure to be produced separately using cost-effective methods while the housing can be produced using standard processes, resolving the contradiction between cooling performance and production cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling structure utilizes a porous or fibrous material that can be inserted into the housing to create turbulence in the cooling fluid flow. This porous structure provides effective cooling capacity without requiring complex meandering geometries, thus reducing production costs while maintaining cooling performance.
2Temperature
If complex meandering cooling ducts are designed to generate turbulent flows, then cooling capacity is enhanced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system is segmented into a simple housing with basic cooling ducts and a separate insertable cooling structure. The complex turbulence-generating function is assigned to the removable cooling structure rather than being integrated into the housing geometry, simplifying the overall device complexity while maintaining cooling capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling structure acts as an intermediary element that mediates between the simple housing and the cooling fluid. It introduces turbulence into the flow without requiring the housing itself to have complex meandering ducts, thus reducing device complexity while enhancing cooling capacity.
3Temperature
If direct cooling variants with oil droplets are applied to e-machine windings, then cooling effectiveness is improved, but additional components and direct coupling to gear mechanism are required
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling device is designed to utilize the existing cooling fluid circulation system of the motor vehicle without requiring direct coupling to the gear mechanism or additional specialized components. The cooling structure passive(ly) enhances the cooling effectiveness by generating turbulence in the existing fluid flow, allowing the system to serve itself using available resources.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The proposed cooling device achieves improved cooling capacity by generating turbulent flows within the cooling duct, while reducing production costs through the use of simpler geometries and mass-producible inserts, effectively addressing the inefficiencies and high costs of existing cooling technologies.
Implementation Method 1
at least one cooling structure (14) which takes the form of an insert for inserting into the at least one cooling duct (13) and which is designed to increase a flow resistance of the cooling fluid by generating turbulences of the cooling fluid
Implementation Method 2
Heat given off by the component is transported away by convection via these cooling ducts
Implementation Method 3
Heat given off by the component is transported away by convection via these cooling ducts
Data Source
AI summary
A cooling device for an electric drive unit of a motor vehicle includes a housing and at least one cooling structure. The housing is configured to receive the at least one component of the drive unit. The housing, at least in some regions thereof, is a cooling jacket for the at least one component and being configured to cool the at least one component. The cooling jacket having at least one cooling duct through which a cooling fluid is flowable. The at least one cooling structure is an insert inserted into the at least one cooling duct and is configured to increase a flow resistance of the cooling fluid by generating turbulences of the cooling fluid.