An Improved Lumped Parameter Thermal Model for Electrical Machines

G. Dajaku, D. Gerling Institute for Electrical Drives, University of Federal Defense Munich Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, D-85577 Neubiberg, Germany, tel: +49 89 6004 3708, fax: +49 89 6004 3718, e-mail: gurakuq.dajaku@unibw.de, dieter.gerling@unibw.de

ABSTRACT The lumped-parameter thermal method (conventional lumped-parameter thermal method) has been used for a long time for calculation of the temperature rises in electric machines. In spite of being popular, generally this method is not applied correctly for elements with distributed heat generation. To overcome the drawbacks of this method, in this paper, a novel thermal model for electrical machines is developed. Using this model, the thermal performances of a PM machine are analysed. The accuracy of this model has been verified by comparing with FEM calculations.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) gain more and more importance for special drive applications. Up to recent years, PMSM were known for small drives, e.g. for servo applications. In the last years, PMSM are increasingly applied in several areas such as traction, automobiles, etc. Therefore, development of different machine types requires attention to the thermal aspects since, at the end, it is always the thermal constraints that will determine the power rating of the machine. To insure a successful design of the electrical machines, it is necessary to be able to predict an accurate temperature distribution in the most sensitive parts of the machine to prevent the damages that can occur either by breakdown of the stator winding insulation or by the demagnetization of the magnets. Knowledge of thermal behaviour in different situations can prevent overheating, but can also improve the utilization of the system at normal operation. As is known, different calculation methods can be used to analyse the thermal behaviour of electrical machines: exact analytical calculation (distributed loss model), numerical analysis, and the lumped-parameter or nodal method (concentrated loss model). Compared with other methods, the lumped-parameter thermal method is simple and attractive which can give accurate representation of the thermal conditions within the machine. This method has been used for a long time by many authors for calculation of the temperature rises in electric machines, which solves the thermal problems by applying thermal networks in analogy to electrical circuits. Generally, the lumped-parameter thermal model is composed of thermal resistances, thermal capacitances and power losses inside the system. Such a model is based on the hypothesis that the system, under the thermal point of view, can be divided into several parts that are connected

to each other by means of thermal resistors and capacitors. In the equivalent thermal network, all the heat generation in the component is concentrated in one point. This point represents the mean temperature of the component. In many literatures [4]-[15], during calculation of thermal characteristics using the lumped-parameter method, as heat generators are taken the corresponding power losses in the components. In spite of being popular, generally this method is not applied correctly for elements with distributed heat generation. From the thermal analysis presented in [1], [2] it is shown that solving the thermal problems with this method leads to wrong results if the total power losses are taken as heat sources in the thermal network (conventional lumped-parameter method). In the past, this systematic mistake was unknown, but instrinsicly eliminated by the fitting procedure. Based on the analysis presented in [1], [2], the required change to the conventional lumped-parameter thermal method to omit this systematic mistake is simple, but decisive: Calculating a single lossy element, half of the losses should be applied as heat generator source, Calculating a more complex system composed of more than one lossy element, compensating elements have to be introduced into the lumped-parameter thermal network, Transient calculations can easily be developed from the described steady state analysis.

II.

THERMAL MODELING OF ELECRICAL MACHINES

During the thermal analysis with lumped parameter method, the electrical machine is divided geometrically into a number of lumped components, each component having a bulk thermal storage and heat generation and interconnenctions to neighbouring components through a linear mesh of thermal impedances. The lumped parameters are derived from entirely dimensional information, the thermal properties of the materials used in the design, and constant heat transfer coefficients. The thermal circuit in steady-state condition consists of thermal resistances and heat sources connected between the component nodes. For transient analysis, the heat thermal capacitances are used additionally to take into account the change in internal energy of the body with the time. Heat transfer in electrical machines is a combination of conduction within solid and laminated components, and convection from surfaces which are in contact with air or

other cooling fluids. This section describes the thermal modelling procedure of electrical machines with different rotor topologies. The axial cut of a PM machine with surface mounted magnets in the rotor is shown in figure1.

Figure 1. The axial cut of the electrical machine

In general, the geometric complexity of an electric machine requires a large thermal network if a solution with a high resolution of the temperature distribution is required. Instead of using a large, complex model, the geometrical symmetries of the machine were used to reduce the order of the model. The distributed thermal properties have been lumped together to form a small thermal network, representing the whole machine. The following assumptions have been made during this analysis: The motor has the following symmetrical characteristics: cylindrical around the shaft and mirror-like concerning a plane perpendicular to the shaft in the middle of the shaft length, Each cylinder is thermally symmetrical in the radial direction, The inner heat sources are uniformly distributed, The heat flux in the axial direction has been considered only in the shaft. It has been neglected in the rest of the machine. In this way, the thermal radial resistance can be computed using the equations of the hollow cylinder. Based on the above assumptions, the electric machine is divided geometrically into a number of components. The number of the nodes is reduced to seven that provides thermal access to all key elements inside the machine. One node (1) is placed in the stator frame. Two nodes (2, 3) were used for the stator core, which is the largest machine part usually exposed to high temperature gradients. The placement of one node (2) is taken to be in the stator yoke and one in the stator teeth (3). Motor operation at high torque is associated with large heat dissipation in the machine windings. Two separate nodes are assigned to the stator windings, making it possible to separately estimate the temperatures of the coil sides embedded in the stator core and the end windings. Therefore, in the model presented, there are two nodes (4, 5) representing the windings; one node (5) for the end windings and one for the coil sides (4). It is assumed that heat dissipated from the end winding enters the slots via the conductors. As the end winding reaches the slot, heat starts to flow into the stator iron core and further out to the stator frame. Predicting the temperature of the rotor, especially of the permanent magnets (for a PMSM), is of great importance. The behaviour of the permanent magnet material at

increased temperature can involve risk for permanent demagnetization. For this reason, two nodes (6, 7) were used for the rotor. The placement of one node is taken in the first rotor layer (bandage) (6) and the other one in the magnets (7). According to [1], [2] and the above modeling concepts, each element is identified by a node in the equivalent circuit and is associated with a thermal capacitance, a heat source and corresponding compensation thermal elements. The nodes are put in the middle of each corresponding component and are coupled to their neighbours by thermal resistances. Figure 2 shows the improved thermal model for the i-th element. Therefore, development of a thermal model can be divided into four parts: Forming the thermal network for the electric machine, Determining the thermal resistances and capacitances, Determining the compensation thermal elements, Determining the losses and their distribution in the machine. All these items are important for the calculation of the thermal performances of the electrical machines.

Figure 2. Lumped-parameter thermal model with compensation elements for the i-th element

II.1 THERMAL RESISTANCES

It is possible to distinguish between two types of resistances, depending on the kind of thermal exchange between the surfaces of the concentric cylinders that they represent: one is the conduction heat transfer inside solid masses, and the other one is the convection heat transfer through the surface separating a solid mass from the fluid. The conduction thermal resistance in radial direction for a hollow cylinder can be calculated as follows [3]:
Rconduction = ln ( ro / ri ) 2 k L

(1)

where, with ro , ri , L, and k are denoted the cylinder outside radius, inside radius, the axial length, and thermal conductivity of the material. If a temperature exchange due to the convection exists, the heat-transfer rate is related to the overall temperature difference between the wall and fluid and the convection area A. The convection resistance is defined as [3]:
Rconvection = 1 h A

(2)

The quantity h is called the convection heat transfer coefficient. An analytical calculation of h may be made for some systems. For a complex situation it must be determined experimentally. The heat transfer coefficient in many literatures is called as film conductance because of its relation to the conduction process in this stationary layer of fluid at the wall surface. During thermal modelling of the electric machines, the mechanical contacts are important, for example, between the winding and teeth as well as between the stator core and frame. A poor mechanical contact has gas pockets which decreases the heat transfer across the joint. The temperature drop between two contact surfaces is the result of a thermal contact resistance [3],
Rcontact =
1

this effect appears in the slot-teeth region. The heat generation in the stator slot leads to the wrong temperature in the teeth region, and afterwards it is reflected to all components of the electric machines. Therefore, to compensate this temperature error, additional compesation temperature elements between the midpoint of the stator teeth and its corresponding end points have to be used.

II.4 HEAT SOURCES

The heat generation due to losses in the different machine components was introduced with current generator parallel connected to the thermal components of the machine parts that generate these losses. The losses of an electric machine consist of: stator iron losses, stator copper losses, rotor losses and friction losses. The power losses can be calculated analytically or using FE methods. For each operating condition, the calculated losses of the electric machine have to be used as the thermal model inputs. Because the parameters of the electrical machines (winding resistance R and the magnet remanence Brem) are temperature dependent parameters, there is a strong interaction between the electromagnetic and thermal analysis, i.e. the losses are critically dependent on the temperature and vice versa.

hcont A

(3)

where, hcont is called the contact coefficient and A is the contact surface area. The value of the contact coefficient, hcont , depends on different factors such as: contact surface, thickness of the void space, thermal conductivity of the fluid which fills the void space, pressure etc. The contact coefficient for different materials and surface types is difficult to be calculated, and has to be determined experimentally.

II.2 THERMAL CAPACITANCES

In time dependent problems, a representation of the stored thermal energy in the system is introduced as thermal capacitances. Each node is assigned with a thermal capacitance from the node to ambient. The thermal capacitance of an element is derived from geometrical and material data of the machine,
Cthi = mi ci

III. A SIMPLIFIED THERMAL NETWORK FOR ELECTRICAL MACHINES

Based on the modifications and improvements proposed in [1], [2], in this paper, a novel lumpedparameter thermal model (lumped-parameter model with compensation thermal elements) for the thermal analysis of electrical machines with different rotor topologies is developed, figure 3. This model consists of a seven-node network that captures all key machine temperatures. For PM machines with different rotor topologies the only resistances that will be different in the thermal model presented in figure 3 are Rth5 , Rth 6 , and Rth10 .

(4)

where mi is the mass and ci is the specific heat capacity of the i-th element.

II.3 COMPENSATION THERMAL ELEMENTS

According to [2], some compensation thermal elements have to be used in the improved thermal network to compensate the temperature error obtained from the conventional lumped-parameter method loaded with the total power losses. If the nodes of the thermal network are applied to the middle of each corresponding machine component (as is performed during the following thermal analyis of the PM machine), the expression for the compensation elements for this modeling case is [2]:
tcomp ,i = PLosses ,i Rth ,i 4 2

(5)

In analogy to the basic reason for the error of the conventional lumped-parameter method, where the heat generation of the regarded element leads to the gradient temperature error inside the own element, in some cases the heat generation of one element leads to the temperature error in the neighbouring component. In electric machines

Figure 3. A novel lumped-parameter model for electrical machines.

Using the above expressions, the model parameters can be derived from the entire dimensional information of

the electric machine, the thermal properties of the material used in the design, and constant heat transfer coefficients. In the following Tables the thermal resistances and the compensation elements of the thermal network are explained briefly.
TABLE I: Thermal resistances
Meaning of the thermal resistances

magnets in the rotor. It has a stator outer diameter of 280 mm and an active length of 68 mm. The motor is designed for a wide operation speed range (0-6000 rpm). Figure 4 shows the cross-section of the studied machine.

Rth 0 Rth1 Rth 2 Rth 3

3 Rth Rth 4 Rth 5 Rth 6 Rth 7 Rth8 Rth 9 Rth10

Forced convection thermal resistance between stator frame and cooling channels Equivalent thermal resistance between the stator yoke midpoint and stator frame Equivalent thermal resistance between the stator teeth midpoint and stator yoke midpoint Equivalent thermal resistance between the coil side and the stator teeth midpoint Equivalent thermal resistance between the coil side and the stator yoke midpoint Equivalent thermal resistance between the coil side and the end-winding node Equivalent thermal resistance between the stator teeth midpoint and the first layer midpoint Equivalent thermal resistance between the first layer midpoint and the second layer midpoint Equivalent thermal resistance between the second layer midpoint and the stator frame Equivalent thermal resistance between the endwinding node and the stator frame Equivalent thermal resistance between the endwinding node and the second layer midpoint Equivalent thermal resistance between the second layer midpoint and the ambient

Figure 4. Geometry of the analysed PM machine.

The stator of the PM machine is mounted along its outer periphery in an aluminium cylinder, which is cooled by forced water flowing through serial-circumferentially cooling channels. Furthermore, water-cooling of the stator frame was chosen to achieve a compact motor construction, and by making the cooling channels spiral shaped, the temperature differences along the frame surface can be kept small. Table III shows the calculated steady-state temperatures for different operation conditions when the stator frame temperature is 90 C.
TABLE III: Steady-state temperature
Speed [rpm] 500 [C] [C] [C] [C] 90 104.07 140.03 195.83 203.1 122.12 121.69 3000 90 105.56 145.28 199.67 206.4 163.93 163.9 6000 90 103.08 136.27 161.53 164.85 181.8 183.18

TABLE II: Compensation thermal elements

Meaning of the thermal compensation elements

tY -Fr tY -T tY -Cs tT-Y tT-Ag

S

Stator yoke frame Stator yoke teeth Stator yoke coil side Stator teeth yoke Stator teeth air gap

Stator yoke compensation thermal elements due to PYoke losses Stator teeth compensation thermal elements due to PTeeth

T1 -Frame T2 -Yoke
T3 -Teeth T4 -Coil side T6 -Layer 1 T7 -Rotor

tTeeth

losses Stator teeth compensation thermal elements due to PCoil -side losses Coil side stator yoke Coil side stator teeth Coil side end winding End winding coil side Layer 1 stator teeth Layer 1 rotor core Stator coil side compensation thermal elements due to PCoil -side losses

T5 -End winding [C]

[C] [C]

tCs-Y tCs-T tCs-Ew tEw-Cs tL1-Ag tL1-Rc tRc-L1

IV.1 SENSITIVY ANALYSIS

End-winding comp. thermal elements due to PEnd -wind losses First layer compensation thermal elements due to PLayer1

losses Rotor core first layer Second layer compensation thermal elements due to PLayer 2 losses (magnets)

It must be denoted here, that the above calculations are made for an ideal case. The equivalent thermal conductivity and the thickness of the insulation layer in the stator slot is taken to be keq = 0.25 W/(mC) and xeq = 0.5 mm, respectively. In addition, the frame temperature is taken to be constant for different operation conditions of the PM machine. The effect of these parameters on the thermal performances of the electric machine is discussed below.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

In the following analysis, the thermal model given in the figure 3 is implemented to calculate the thermal performances of a PM machine with surface mounted

IV.1.1

COOLING EFFECT

Generally, for the water-cooled electric machine in the stator frame, the total heat generated in the electric

machine flows throughout the components of the electric machine to the frame and then by the convection the heat is transferred away to the coolant. In the figure 3, the heat transfer from the stator frame to the coolant is presented with a convective thermal resistance Rth 0 . This parameter depends on many factors, such as geometry of the cooling surface, cooling effectivity etc., and requires a careful consideration because of its position in the main heat flow path of the stator losses to the ambient. To show the influence of the stator frame convection heat transfer coefficient in the thermal performances of the PM machine, the temperature is calculated for the different stator frame cooling conditions. The following calculations are done for the case when the coolant temperature is 90 C, and the PM machine operates at 500 rpm. The other parameters of the thermal model are taken to be the same as in the previous calculation. Table IV shows the temperature variation in the PM machine for different convection heat transfer coefficients.
TABLE IV: Influence of the stator frame cooling
h

the air-gaps between the conductors.

The equivalent thermal conductivity is difficult to be determined analytically. For this parameter, a thermal test, proposed in [4], with a stator DC supply is simply requested. According to the experimental results made for an induction motor [15], the equivalent thermal conductivity can be considered in the range of 0.06 to 0.09 W/(mC). In the above thermal analysis, an insulation material with thermal conductivity keq = 0.25 W/(mC) and thickness xeq = 0.5 mm is taken during the simulation. To show the influence of the equivalent insulation layer on the thermal performances of the electric machine, the following calculations are made for different values of keq . For h = 12000 W /(m 2 o C) stator frame convection coefficient, the steady-state temperatures of the electric machine at 500 rpm are presented in the Table V.
TABLE V: Influence of slot insulation material
0.25 0.0148 0.0654 96.33 110.38 146.29 202.12 209.36 125.69 125.21 0.1 0.0360 0.1574 96.33 110.21 148.45 291.95 298.63 129.21 128.73 0.06 0.0597 0.2597 96.33 110 148.57 387.98 394.05 131.91 131.48

W /(m C)
2 o

1000 0.0128 156.8 170.69 206.06 262 269.17 159.78 158.82

6000 0.0023 102.13 116.16 152.02 207.84 215.1 128.96 128.42

12000 0.0012 96.33 110.38 146.29 202.12 209.36 125.69 125.21

keq

[W/(mC)] [C/W] [C/W] [C] [C] [C] [C]

Rth 0 T1 -Frame T2 -Yoke T3 -Teeth T4 -Coil side T6 -Layer 1 T7 -Rotor

[C/W] [C] [C] [C] [C]

Rth 3
3 Rth

T1 -Frame T2 -Yoke T3 -Teeth T4 -Coil side T6 -Layer 1 T7 -Rotor

T5 -End winding [C] [C] [C]

T5 -End winding [C] [C] [C]

Table IV shows that the frame temperature (and as a consequence the temperatures at the other parts of the PM machine) varies with the variation of the heat transfer coefficient. Increasing the cooling intensity (using an effective cooling method), clearly decreases the temperature in all components of the machine.

Table V shows that the equivalent thermal conductivity of the insulation layer has a significant effect on the stator windings temperature. To improve the thermal characteristics of the electric machine, especially in the stator windings, the slot insulation material with high thermal conductivity must be used. From the above analysis it is shown that the stator frame temperature depends on the efficiency of the cooling method and the generated power losses in the electric machine. The variation of the convection heat transfer coefficient in the stator frame alters the temperature rise in all components of the electric machine. Otherwise, the end winding temperature is of great importance since it is the part in the machine, which reaches the highest temperature. 3 affect the predicted As is shown in Table V, Rth3 and Rth end winding temperature significantly. Focusing on regions with high temperature gradients is especially important here. In this case, the slot insulation and air pockets around the stator windings should be brought to attention.

IV.1.2 INFLUENCE OF THE SLOT INSULATION MATERIAL

Various modelling strategies have been developed by many authors to model the heat transfer and temperature distribution within a winding. One of them is the composite thermal conductivity method [4] in which the calculations of the thermal resistance perpendicular to the winding conductors were made by considering the insulated conductors and impregnation material as homogeneous body of slot material. The slot region is modeled with an homogeneous material (copper) at the slot center, insulated with an equivalent insulation layer. This insulation layer is characterised by an equivalent thermal conductivity keq , which takes into account the thermal conductivity of: the slot insulation layer, air-gap between the slot insulation and the laminations, the insulation varnish of the windings, and

IV.2 COMPARISON WITH FE METHODS

In this section the proposed thermal model is validated by comparison with FE methods. Figure 5 shows the temperature distribution inside the PM machine. The

FE simulations are performed under the following conditions: 500 rpm operating speed, 90 C coolant temperature, h = 12000 W /(m2 o C) (coolant convection coefficient), and keq = 0.25 W/(mC) (thermal conductivity of the slot insulation layer).

machine. The influence of the equivalent slot insulation material and the cooling efficiency on the thermal performances of the studied PM machine is investigated. Furthermore, a comparison with FEM is performed. It is shown that the calculation results obtained with the improved lumped-parameter method are in good agreement with the ANSYS results.

VI.

REFERENCES

Figure 5: Temperature distribution inside the PM machine.

Under the same simulation conditions, Table VI compares the results obtained from the improved lumped-parameter thermal method, conventional lumped-parameter thermal method, and from ANSYS thermal analysis.
TABLE VI: Comparison of results.
Temperature of the PM machine at 500 rpm T1 -Frame [C] T2 -Yoke T3 -Teeth T4 -Coil side T6 -Layer 1 T7 -Magnets [C] [C] [C] ANSYS 2D 97.26 110.7 145.6 202.49 -124.6 124.01 Improved LPM 96.33 110.38 146.29 202.12 209.36 125.69 125.21 Conventional LPM 96.33 110.36 152 207.2 222.35 125.78 125.32

T5 -End winding [C] [C] [C]

As is shown in the Table VI, the calculation results obtained with the improved lumped-parameter method are in good agreement with the ANSYS results. Comparing the conventional lumped-parameter method and the ANSYS results, it is shown that in some sections of the studied electric machine such as in the stator teeth, coil side, and end winding, there is a relatively large discrepancy between the results. Based on the expression for the compensation thermal elements presented in the section II.3, the deviation of the results obtained with conventional lumped-parameter thermal method from an accurate calculation method (FEM, improved lumped-parameter method) depends on the operation conditions of the studied machine (power losses), thermal characteristics of the materials, and the operation temperature (thermal conductivity of the materials vary with the temperature). V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, an improved lumped-parameter thermal model (lumped-parameter method with compensation thermal elements) for the thermal performances of electrical machines is developed and analysed. This model has been applied to predict the thermal behaviour of a PM

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