Analysis of Temperature Rise in High-Speed Permanent Magnet Synchronous Traction Motors by Coupling the Equivalent Thermal Circuit Method and Computational Fluid Dynamics

To solve the problem of temperature rise caused by the high power density of high-speed permanent magnet synchronous traction motors,the temperature rise of various components in the motor is analyzed by coupling the equivalent thermal circuit method and computational fluid dynamics.Also,a cooling strategy is proposed to solve the problem of temperature rise,which is expected to prolong the service life of these devices.First,the theoretical bases of the approaches used to study heat transfer and fluid mechanics are discussed,then the fluid flow for the considered motor is analyzed,and the equivalent thermal circuit method is introduced for the calculation of the temperature rise.Finally,the stator,rotor loss,motor temperature rise,and the proposed cooling method are also explored through experiments.According to the results,the stator temperature at 50,000 r/min and 60,000 r/min at no-load operation is 68℃ and 76℃,respectively.By monitoring the temperature of the air outlets inside and outside the motor at different speeds,it is also found that the motor reaches a stable temperature rise after 65 min of operation.Coupling of the thermal circuit method and computational fluid dynamics is a strategy that can provide the average temperature rise of each component and can also comprehensively calculate the temperature of each local point.We conclude that a hybrid cooling strategy based on axial air cooling of the inner air duct of the motor and water cooling of the stator can meet the design requirements for the ventilation and cooling of this type of motors.

Cooling System Design Optimization of an Enclosed PM Traction Motor for Subway Propulsion Systems

This paper presents the design optimization of a self-circulated ventilation system for an enclosed permanent magnet(PM)traction motor utilized in the propulsion systems for subway trains.In order to analyze accurately the machine's inherent cooling capacity when the train is running,the ambient airflow and the related heat transfer coefficient(HTC)are numerically investigated considering synchronously the bogie installation structure.The machine is preliminary cooled with air ducts set on the motor shell,and the fluidic-thermal field distributions with only the shell air duct cooling are numerically calculated.During simulations,the HTC obtained in the former steps is applied to the external surface of the machine to model the inherent cooling characteristic caused by the train movement.To reduce the temperature rise and thus guarantee the motor's working reliability,an internal self-circulated air cooling system is proposed according to the machine temperature distribution.The air enclosed in the end-caps is driven by the blades mounted on both sides of the rotor core and forms two air circuits to bring the excessive power losses generated in the heating components to cool regions.The fluid flow and temperature rise distributions of the cooling system's structural parameters are further improved by the Taguchi method in order to confirm the efficacy of the internal air cooling system.