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eWP thermal Management

Numerical and analytical Investigation By Raffaele Squarcini, Matteo Gasperini, Giorgio Peroni, Gilles Simon, Micaela Olivetti
Years back, the growing need to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions led to the introduction of a new generation of water pumps actuated by an electrical motor (eWPs). Pierburg was the first manufacturer to produce eWPs on a commercial scale. The thermal management of the electric devices, that drive the impeller, is a key design issue for these type of pumps. This article describes the methodology implemented at Pierburg Pump Technology to study the thermal aspects related to these pumps.

3Fig. 1
Pierburg Pump Technology pumps

Introduction
the focus of the development of coolant pumps has been for a long time the improvement of efficiency and durability, as well as noise reduction. essentially, the design of pumps remained unchanged throughout this period. However, the increasingly tough requirements in terms of fuel economy and emission reduction over the last few years led to the introduction of flexible systems, encouraging a fundamental rethink of pumps development. Years back, Pierburg spotted this trend and developed the first electric coolant pump to be produced on a commercial scale. the prime motivation was undoubtedly the optimization of the fuel efficiency and the reduction of the exhaust gas emissions. on the other hand, the use of electric coolant pumps is absolutely essential to satisfy growing needs and tougher requirements of modern engines. in recent years, the number of tasks required for the coolant circuit in an engine has been steadily rising: for example, the exhaust gas recirculation is today optimized with additional water cooling and the current engine development trend leading to downsizing and turbo charging has also increased this trend. the hydraulics of the coolant pump is designed for the engines least favourable thermal loading. as a consequence of this requirement and of the fixed transmission ratio between engine and pump, the engine is oversupplied with coolant at most operating

points. a better adaptation of cooling performance to the needs of the engine can be achieved with both continuous and discrete adjustment mechanisms. in these cases, pump speed variability is realized with an electric actuator. the run-on function in particular highlights this decisive advantage over conventional pumps. With an electric coolant pump, fuel savings of two up to three percent are possible, thanks to demand driven coolant supply. in special situations, e.g. at the cold start, the pump can be switched off entirely. thus, the pollutant emissions are reduced by accelerating the engine warm-up. the driving strategies of future cars, such as hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles will extend the application spectrum of electric coolant pumps. these new strategies require the cooling of batteries, dc/dc converters, power electronics and drive engines, as well as, on demand, the discharge of heat into the passenger compartment. to perform these multiple cooling tasks, Pierburg Pump technology has been developing electric coolant pumps in different performance range for many years (Fig. 1). the product portfolio in series production today cov-

ers the output range of 15 to 200 W and is broken down into three performance classes. the bottom performance range is covered by water circulation pumps (WuP). For the middle range from 50 to 100 W, the cWa50/100 is available, while the top range is served by the cWa200. current trends request an extension of the pump portfolio. along with the development of the cWa400, a 400 W high-performance coolant pump of the third generation, a performance-enhanced WuP is also in the pipeline. both pumps are based on the proven design of the previous models. their hydraulic performance has been more than doubled, while the dimensions didnt change. the pumps underlying principle is, in all cases, the same. the impeller that generates coolant flow is driven by a wet rotor. this eliminates all dynamic seals and keeps the system robust and leakage-free throughout its service life with an inexpensive design. the wet rotor and stator are separated by a containment shell and together make up the brushless ec motor. the electronics, whose main task is to ensure the sensor-less commutation of the brushless dc motor, is always integrated in the pump and thus allows for an extremely compact design.

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Fig. 2 also shows (see white arrows) the electric motor coolant flow path. the coolant liquid is spilled from the volute, via four specifically designed leakage holes and re-injected through the impeller bore. When the pump is working, the cavity is filled with water, driven by the pressure difference imposed by the pump itself. thanks to this configuration, the water flows through the first chamber under the impeller and then through the four orifices, filling the internal gap between the rotor and the stator winding and cooling the heat sink surface. the water also serves as cooling fluid for the stator and the transistors of the control unit. the mass flowrate through the by-pass is very little compared to the total pump flow-rate. consequently, the volumetric efficiency is marginally affected. However, the flow through the by-pass is enough to obtain a sensitive benefit in terms of temperature reduction on the electronics. thermal management is undoubtedly a critical point in electric pumps design. a high power electrical device generates dangerous thermal loads. these high temperatures in the heavier working conditions cannot be removed without a specific cooling system, otherwise leading to some damage of the components themselves. therefore, a specific analysis on this topic is required. the electric components, the temperature at each point of the pump can be theoretically calculated. in practice, it is not easy to obtain an analytical expression of the heat transfer coefficient considering the complex spatial geometry of the by-pass flow. therefore, the focus has only been set on the two main surfaces of the internal cavity involved in the thermal transmission: the annular gap between the rotor and the stator winding and the array of fins that bounds the interface zone with the transistors plate. With this approach, the heat transmission has been split into two simple contributions, each of which can be managed with an analytical model. the heat transfer coefficient, as a function of the nuesselt number, is available in literature for similar problems. the annular section, as seen in Fig. 3, can be modelled as two coaxial cylinders, where the inner cylinder is rotating and the outer one is stationary. this problem is known as the taylor-couette flow and it is a classical hydrodynamics configuration, extensively discussed in literature [1] e [2]. the simple case of the two counter-rotating cylindrical surfaces is complicated by the presence of the by-pass axial flow. several studies present experimental data on heat transfer: in many papers empirical equations for the nuesselt number can be found. an accurate search allows finding the formula that fits, at best, the case of the annular gap. the geometry of the region around the heat sink is very specific; thus, it is not possible to

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4Fig. 2
Pierburg Pump Technology CWA400A

3Fig. 3
The two surfaces considered in the analytical model

find an identical case in literature. However, considering the volume shape, a concentrical annular gap, without rotation with heat transfer from both the cylinders, can be used as an approximation. as a consequence, an analytical expression of the nuesselt number can be found depending on the reynolds and the Prandtl numbers. the dimensions of the theoretical annular gap are obtained assuming the correspondence of his base area with the heat sink projected one. With this analytical approach, the heat transfer coefficients for both surfaces of interest can be obtained. these values are based on two simple one-dimensional models, as the convection over a cylindrical wall and the convection over a flat plate. Knowing the heat transfer coefficients, the thermal distribution inside the stator winding and the electronic devices can be estimated.

Analytical approach
From the previous description, it is evident that a by-pass flow study is essential to optimize the thermal management of the pump. in detail, a thermo-fluid analysis is necessary to obtain the internal distribution of temperature. to this aim, two different approaches have been followed: the analytical approach, consisting in building a simplified model of the internal components, and the numerical approach, consisting in setting up a complete cFd model of the entire pump. the analytical approach is useful to understand the physics of the problem, rather than to obtain a precise prediction of the temperature distribution. the main task of this activity is to evaluate the heat transfer coefficient between the by-pass flow and the surrounding solid bodies. Knowing this parameter, the thermal conductivity of the solid bodies themselves and the thermal power generated from

Numerical approach
For the numerical approach a new thermo-fluid dynamics code has been used, Pumplinx (developed by simerics inc.), that implements the latest advances in cFd and software engineering technology to provide a fast, accurate, robust and easy-to-use 3d simulation tool for pumps, compressors, and other fluid machinery. the code solves first principle conservation equations, coupled with advanced physical

Electric Water Pump (eWP) Layout

an electric water pump consists of two different parts. in the upper part, the hydraulic components are placed: suction duct, impeller and volute, arranged as in a classic water pump. in the lower part the driving unit is located, consisting of the electric motor and the control device. Fig. 2 shows the main components inside a Pierburg Pump technology cWa400a electrical water pump: the reference pump for this work.

3Fig. 4
The heat sink surface

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have been considered. in detail, the fluid parts are the coolant volumes of the suction duct, impeller and volute, the by-pass flow volume and the air volume, that surrounds the stator and the control unit.

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4Fig. 5
Temperature plot resulting from the analytical model and related to the heat sink zone over a section plane through the pumps axis

at the operating level, the starting point is the cad model of the entire computational domain. solid and fluid volumes are exported in stl format and imported into Pumplinx. Volumes are split in order to apply thermal and fluid boundary conditions on surfaces and then meshed. the grid size is different models to provide accurate predictions of flow, pressure, temperatures and cavitation in a short turnaround time. the cFd approach consists in setting up a model of the entire pump. in a thermo-fluid dynamic analysis, the complete set of momentum and thermal equations is solved in the whole computational domain. therefore, both the solid components of the pump and the fluid volumes, that fill the internal cavities,

3Fig. 8
Temperature plot of the solids involved in the CFD analysis

4Fig. 6
Streamline plot of the hydraulic part of the pump (impeller and volute)

4Fig. 7
Fluid Temperature Distribution on a mid plane

from volume to volume, depending on the type of results of interest. on the volumes where it is necessary to solve the boundary layer the mesh is finer; for example, in the bypass flow volume, where high thermal gradients are expected; in the suction, impeller and volute volumes, where the pump performance have to be estimated. the mesh is coarser in the air volumes, where the internal natural convection gives a small contribution to the thermal transmission. the mesh is coarser also on solids, where a low thermal gradient is expected. the different parts of the domain are connected via mismatched grid interfaces. the resulting numerical model sums up to 606.000 computational cells. the second step consists in applying boundary conditions to the domain. these boundary conditions can be divided in flow conditions and thermal conditions. the flow conditions refer to the pressure (impeller inlet) and volumetric flux (volute outlet), applied to the hydraulic part of the model (impeller and volute). moreover, considering the dynamic problem, a rotating velocity is applied to the impeller and the pump shaft. on all the other surfaces of the model, a no slip flow boundary condition is imposed.

the thermal conditions are applied both to solid volumes and fluid volumes. the electric components (solids) are considered as sources of thermal power. a fixed temperature is imposed for the fluid at the inlet boundary. on the external surfaces of the model a convective boundary conditions is applied, to account for the relatively hot surrounding environment. simulations performed for the model pump, using the multiple reference frame (mrF) approach and Pumplinx implicit thermo-fluid solver, reached convergence in about 1 and a half hours on a standard dual-core Windows workstation.

Results
both the previously described approaches lead to results that are coherent with each other; however, significant differences can be found between them. even if it is based on sophisticated analyses, the analytical approach is incomplete, due to the impossibility of dealing with the complex geometry of the internal components of the pump. the typical plot, that can be obtained with the analytical approach, is represented in Fig. 5. although very important for a first approach to the problem, this scheme cant be considered exhaustive for a more detailed analysis.

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at the design flow rate working point, as in Fig. 9 the temperature peak is located inside a specific transistor on the control unit. even if high thermal gradients are plotted, they are restricted to the region occupied by the thermal sources. the cooling effect is assured by the by-pass flow and, to a smaller degree, by the water flowing in the upper part of the pump. Where the fluid velocity is higher, the temperature is lower. Fig. 10 shows the cooling effect of higher velocities in the by-pass. the cooling effect of the fluid is evident, considering that the heat sources provide a total thermal energy of 88 W and that the water is able to dissipate 80 W: the 90% of the thermal energy introduced. the temperatures on the solids near the by-pass are represented in the Fig. 11 Fig. 14.

4Fig. 9
Temperature plot of the solid thermal sources

3Fig. 11
Temperatures on the heat sink

3Fig. 12
Temperatures on the motor

as a consequence, the cFd simulation becomes necessary in order to have a more precise prediction of the temperature loads on the electronic components. on the other hand, the thermo-fluid dynamic analysis includes also the hydraulic analysis of the pump. consequently, the total head, the power absorption and the volumetric efficiency

can be calculated and the flow behaviour inside the components can be extensively investigated (Fig. 6). if we focus on the thermal results, the analysis shows a complete plot of the internal temperature distribution of the pump, including flow passages and solid components. (Fig. 7 and Fig. 8).

Numerical results validation

4Fig. 10
Fluid temperature and fluid velocities in the pump

the results of the cFd analysis in terms of temperature distribution have been compared with the experimental evidences coming from the testing department. on one side, some thermo-camera pictures have been taken during a test at the design flow rate, showing the temperature distribution in the transistors area. the same kind of plot can be obtained from the cFd analysis. the comparison of the results is shown in Fig. 15 and 16. Fig. 15 and Fig.16 show a good agreement, although the transistors layout is slightly different between experimental and computed configuration. the temperature peak is

3Fig. 13
Temperatures on the rotor can

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placed at point #3 in the thermo-camera picture. the difference between the maximum and minimum values of temperatures on the thermal camera plot and on the cFd plot is less than 3%, therefore the simulation can be considered validated against experiments.

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Bibliography
[1] d. moalem, s. cohen, Hydrodynamics and Heat/mass transfer near rotating surfaces, in J. Hartnett, t. irvine and Y. cho, advanced Heat transfer, san diego academic Press, 1991 [2] V. Gnielinski, Wrmebertragung im konzentrischen ringspalt und im ebenen spalt, in V.-G. V. u. c. Verein deutscher ingenieure, Vdi-Wrmeatlats, springer, 2006 [3] basF data sheet: Glysantin G 48, ludwigshafen, 2003 [4] Y. cengel, Heat and mass transfer: a practical approach, 3rd edition, mcGrawHill, 2006 [5] H. K. Versteeg, W. malalasekera, introduction to computational Fluid dynamics - the Finite Volume method, longman, 1995 [6] W. ambrosini, single and two-phase thermal Hydraulics, university of Pisa, italy, 2006 [7] simerics inc, Pumpl.

4Fig. 14
Temperatures on the motor shaft

Conclusions
as electric water pumps become more and more important in engine cooling systems design, due to their flexibility and to their energy efficiency, a methodology to study these pumps thermal management issues has been presented. the analytical approach allows for first level qualitative considerations. a numerical model approach is, on the other hand, necessary to properly evaluate the solid/fluid interaction in the cooling circuit of the electric motor and the surrounding electronic components. the methodology developed with the Pumplinx cFd code allows for a quick turnaround time and, consequently, can be considered as a viable development strategy at industrial level.

The Authors

4Fig. 15
Thermo camera results

Matteo Gasperini (at right) ha conseguito la laurea in ingegneria aerospaziale presso l'universit egli studi di Pisa.
Ha sviluppato competenze nell'ambito della meccanica applicata e della fluidodinamica computazionale. Attualmente membro del gruppo di calcolo di Pierburg Pump Technology in qualit di esperto di fluidodinamica ed ingranaggi. e-mail: matteo.gasperini@it.kspg.com

4Fig. 16
CFD results

Raffaele Squarcini (at left) ha conseguito la laurea in ingegneria Nucleare ed il Dottorato di Ricerca in ingegneria meccanica presso lUniversit degli Studi di Pisa. In particolare ha sviluppato competenze nellambito della meccanica teorica, del calcolo numerico e della tribologia. Ha lavorato come ricercatore progettista presso Siemens VDO ed attualmente responsabile del gruppo di calcolo di Pierburg Pump Technology SpA. e-mail: raffaele.squarcini@it.kspg.com

Hanno collaborato alla realizzazione del progetto Giorgio Peroni e Gilles simon, Pierburg Pump technology spa micaela olivetti, omiQ srl

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