Droplet-Shaped Pin Cooling Element for Low-Loss Drive Unit Heat Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooling elements for electric drive units in motor vehicles have limited cooling capacity due to laminar flow in simple cooling ducts, which restricts heat removal efficiency and requires complex production methods for meandering ducts.
Innovation Solution
A cooling element with a droplet-shaped pin structure that increases flow resistance and turbulence, formed by joining metal sheets with pins extending over the cooling duct height, enhancing convective heat transfer and production simplicity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If simple cooling ducts with laminar flow are used, then the structure is simple and production is easy, but the cooling capacity is limited due to restricted heat removal efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the geometric parameters of the cooling duct by introducing pins with specific droplet-shaped cross-sections. These pins have a width that decreases in the flow direction, creating optimized turbulence patterns that enhance heat transfer coefficient without requiring complex meandering duct geometries. This parameter optimization resolves the contradiction by achieving high cooling capacity through controlled flow disruption rather than complex duct routing.
Solution Approach 2:
The pins are designed with a droplet-shaped cross-section featuring curved surfaces rather than sharp edges. This curvature reduces flow separation and minimizes dead water zones while maintaining turbulence for enhanced cooling. The smooth transition of the droplet shape optimizes the balance between creating turbulence for heat transfer and minimizing pressure losses, thereby improving cooling capacity without excessive manufacturing complexity.
2Temperature
If meandering cooling ducts are used to increase cooling capacity, then heat removal efficiency improves, but the production complexity increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of creating a single complex meandering duct, the patent segments the cooling structure into multiple straight duct sections with pins inserted at regular intervals. This segmentation transforms a complex continuous geometry into simpler discrete components that can be manufactured separately and assembled, significantly reducing production complexity while maintaining enhanced cooling capacity through the distributed pin structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the geometric parameters of the cooling duct by introducing pins with specific droplet-shaped cross-sections. These pins have a width that decreases in the flow direction, creating optimized turbulence patterns that enhance heat transfer coefficient without requiring complex meandering duct geometries. This parameter optimization resolves the contradiction by achieving high cooling capacity through controlled flow disruption rather than complex duct routing.
3Temperature
If pins with constant cross-section are used to create turbulence, then cooling capacity increases, but pressure loss and dead water zones increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs asymmetric droplet-shaped pin cross-sections where the width varies along the flow direction, being larger at the upstream end and smaller at the downstream end. This asymmetric geometry creates controlled turbulence for enhanced cooling while the tapering shape reduces flow separation and minimizes pressure losses compared to constant cross-section pins. The asymmetric design optimizes the trade-off between turbulence generation and energy loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The pins are designed with a droplet-shaped cross-section featuring curved surfaces rather than sharp edges. This curvature reduces flow separation and minimizes dead water zones while maintaining turbulence for enhanced cooling. The smooth transition of the droplet shape optimizes the balance between creating turbulence for heat transfer and minimizing pressure losses, thereby improving cooling capacity without excessive manufacturing complexity.
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 droplet-shaped pin structure increases cooling capacity while minimizing pressure loss and dead water zones, achieving higher temperature reduction with the same pressure loss compared to meandering geometries, and allowing for easier production through roll forming.
Implementation Method 1
The cooling structure is designed to represent a flow resistance for the cooling fluid and to produce additional turbulences in the flow of the cooling fluid
Implementation Method 2
enhancing convective heat transfer
Implementation Method 3
carry a cooling fluid for transporting away waste heat of the components
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a cooling-element part for a cooling element for cooling at least one component of an electrical drive unit of a motor vehicle and can be joined together with a further cooling-element part to form at least one cooling-fluid-carrying cooling duct to the cooling element, and which has a cooling structure configured to increase a flow resistance for the cooling fluid by producing turbulences in the flow having pins that extend at least partially over a height of the cooling duct, wherein the pins are formed as droplet-shaped having a width that decreases in the direction of the flow of the cooling fluid.