Performance Evaluation of Motor Controller Cooling Systems for the KNUT Student EV under Real-Driving Conditions

실주행을 통한 EV 자작차 모터제어장치의 냉각 성능 평가

The driving system of an electric vehicle, which is composed of a battery, a motor, and motor control units, generates overheating due to inevitable electrical loads. Since this overheating is caused by the performance degradation of each component, it is important to maintain an appropriate temperature. In order to solve the issue of performance degradation due to overheating of the motor control units, an optimal cooling system was designed through performance comparison tests of each cooling systems under real-driving conditions. It was expected that constructing a thermal management system, which is a core technology of electric vehicles, improves the durability of the vehicle. It was found that maintaining an appropriate temperature was difficult by circulating cooling water solely through a water pump in a student EV car; therefore, a system that radiates coolant, such as a radiator, needed to be added.