Viscous Dissipation Inside Electric Motors

Abstract

A numerical study has been carried out to quantify the level of viscous dissipation inside an electrical motor. The study has been performed using an in-house computational model. This paper presents the effect of several geometrical and operating parameters on the level of viscous dissipation generated within the stator-rotor gap. The geometrical parameters considered in this study are the gap size and the stator inner diameter, varied in the range of 0.25-1.4 mm and 55-375 mm, respectively. The operating parameter considered in this study is the rotor rotational speed, which was varied in the range of 900-3600 rpm. The numerical results have been validated using experimental data. Results indicated that the amount of heat generated due to viscous dissipation is directly proportional to the stator diameter and rotor rotational speed, and inversely proportional to the gap thickness.