Thermal design of a permanent magnetic motor for direct drive wheel actuator

A permanent magnet motor was designed for aircraft traction during the taxiing phase. In order to improve the reliability, the motor was attached to enable direct drive of the wheel without additional gearing. Due to the high torque needed for the aircraft traction, and the space and mass limitations of the wheel environment, the thermal management of the motor presents a big challenge. This paper describes the thermal management of the direct drive motor. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and lumped parameter thermal models were applied to predict and improve the thermal performance of the motor. Experimental testing provided thermal data, which was compared with the lumped thermal model and the CFD results.