Coupled fluid-thermal network modeling approach for electrical machines

Abstract

This paper presents a coupled fluid-thermal network modeling approach. Thermal conduction and convection and interaction with the air flow are modeled. Special emphasis is put on a modular model so that geometry and cooling methods can be simply modified. The structure of all necessary modules is introduced. To demonstrate the abilities of this modeling approach, a network involving a 6 MW synchronous machine with cylindrical rotor with directly cooled conductors and a rotor with indirectly cooled conductors is generated and the results are investigated.

Application of potting material for a 100 kW radial flux PMSM

“…Two types of potting materials utilized in the machine studied are analyzed by the computational model and tests. It is common to validate the possible cooling system configurations by computational methods, as functional prototypes are expensive and are not always available for practical tests [8]. The traditional method based on Lumped Parameter Thermal Network (LPTN) is insufficient in conditions of sophisticated cooling systems with special heat sink parts.…”