Thermal management analyses of induction motor through the combination of air-cooling and an integrated water-cooling system

Abstract

The correct strategy of heat management in electric machines is extremely important due to their operating costs and length of operation. In this paper, the thermal management element strategies of the induction motors are developed to assure better endurance and boost efficiency. Additionally, an extensive review of the literature was carried out in terms of cooling methods for electrical machines. As the main result, the thermal analysis of an air-cooled and large-capacity induction motor is given, considering well-known heat distribution problems. Moreover, this study also presents an integrated approach with two or more cooling strategies to be the need of the hour. A model of a 100-kW air-cooled induction motor and an improved thermal management model of the same motor were both numerically investigated, using a combination of air cooling and integrated water cooling systems to achieve a significant improvement in motor efficiency. The integrated system comprising air- and water-cooled systems are investigated using SolidWorks 2017 and ANSYS Fluent version 2021. Three different flow rates of water 5 LPM, 10 LPM and 15 LPM are analyzed and compared with a conventional air-cooled induction motor, which was validated with the available published resources. Performed analyses indicate that for different flow rates of 5 LPM, 10 LPM and 15 LPM respectively, we have obtained a reduction of temperature accordingly of 2.94%, 4.79% and 7.69%. Hence, the results indicated that an integrated induction motor is efficient in bringing down the temperature compared to air cooled induction motor.