Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium - 19th March 2024.
The Smart Single Oil-cooling System research project is organised under the IRVA (Industrial Research Valorisation and Acceleration) umbrella, and was kick-started at the first official project meeting, held at the Ghent University Machineries & Factories industrial research facility, in collaboration with Flanders Make and the MOBI Electromobility Research Centre.
Together with industrial partners Dana Incorporated, CNH Industrial and The Lubrizol Corporation, we were diving deeper into the challenges and expectations for the project, to shape the research activities for the next months.
The SmartSOS project goal is the development of an automated tool for thermal system architecture design, focusing on validated direct contact cooling methods for both battery and power electronics (power modules, inverter, on-board charger) using state-of-the-art dielectric e-fluids, while also verifying material compatibility and robustness via accelerated chemical, thermal and electrical lifetime testing.
This project builds further on the previous Single Oil Cooling and Lubrification (SingleOilCNL) project, to help the electrified vehicles industry move towards a consolidated dielectric oil-based cooling and lubrification system architecture. Such an architecture employing direct cooling methods is expected to increase power density, energy efficiency and safety at an overall lower system cost vs current water-glycol-based solutions.
The SmartSOS project will run until August 2026 and is funded by Flanders Make via VLAIO, the Flemish government, and contributions of the industrial partners.