Analysis of power loss in heat pipes for integrated thermal management of next generation electrical machines

This paper presents analysis of eddy-current power loss in heat pipes (HPs) for integrated thermal management of electrical machines. Here, a close integration of HPs with winding body is considered. Such an arrangement is particularly attractive, as it targets the main heat source within the machine assembly. However, there are several challenges associated with the subsystem compatibility, which include electromagnetic, thermal, and mechanical design aspects. The HP's power loss, which is generated as a results of the time varying stator and/or rotor slot magnetic flux leakage, requires careful considerations. Although, the HP-enabled thermal management of electrical machines (electrical windings) has been previously investigated, the additional HP generated power loss has had a very little attention. In this work, the author proposes alternative techniques for accurate predictions of HP generated power loss accounting for the HP's wick structure. Three alternative custom-built HP constructions Copper-Water and Titanium-Water with sintered and mesh wicks have been investigated in this analysis. Both theoretical finite element (FE) electromagnetic and experimental methods are discussed in detail. The results show that the proposed experiment informed FE model of HP with an equivalent electrical resistivity wick region provides an accurate HP representation useful in design of electrical machines. Further to these, the proposed approach is demonstrated on an example custom vapor chamber (VC) highlighting the importance of accurate power loss predictions in HPs and VCs.