2017 4th International Conference on Information Science and Control Engineering

Effects of the length of rotor wafters on rotor temperature rise for permanent
magnet synchronous motor

Xiao-Hua CAO, Heng WEI, Xin WANG

Wuhan University of Technology
Wuhan, China
e-mail: Tomm_cao@163.com, 444360230@qq.com, 497724761@qq.com

Abstract—The rotor heat load of permanent magnet

synchronous motor (PMSM) occupies a large proportion of the II. CALCULATION MODEL AND BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
total heat load. The length of rotor wafters has a great
influence on rotor temperature rise. In order to research its A. Motor calculation model
influence, based on heat transfer theory and hydrodynamics, To research the PMSM’s temperature distribution,
the thermal calculation model and three-dimensional flow numerical methods needed to be used to analyze its three-
model of PMSM are established. Then, the main heat source of dimensional steady-state temperature field[5]. Use heat
the motor is measured and the heat dissipation coefficients of
transfer theory[6] to solve the PMSM temperature field
each part of the motor are calculated, ANSYS WORKBENCH
questions, in cartesian coordinates, the three-dimensional
software is used to analyze and compare the temperature rise
of the rotor under different length of rotor wafters. The
heat conduction equation can be presented as follows:
influence of rotor wafters on rotor temperature rise for
permanent magnet synchronous motor is summarized, it ∂ § ∂T · ∂ § ∂T · ∂ § ∂T ·
¨ λx ¸ + ¨λy ¸ + ¨ λz ¸ = −q . (1)
provides a theory evidence for further studies on temperature ∂x © ∂x ¹ ∂y ¨© ∂y ¸¹ ∂z © ∂z ¹
rise of permanent magnet synchronous motor.
The boundary conditions of insulation surface and
Keywords-permanent magnet synchronous motor; length of
rotor wafters; rotor temperature rise
radiating surface are as follows:

I. INTRODUCTION
Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM)’s no-
load magnetic field is produced by permanent magnet poles,
without the field winding that old electric excited-motor used
to have, therefore PMSM has many advantages such as
simple structure, low depletion, high efficiency, high power
factor, high power density, and it has a wide potential
applications in cranes, machine tools, mines, metallurgy, oil
drilling, electricity, chemical engineering, elevators and
many other fields.
In recent years, there already been some research towards
PMSM. Reference [1] discussed the finite element
calculation, test method and the influence of the temperature
rise of the PMSM. Reference [2] had established a thermal
circuit model of PMSM. Reference [3] researched the
temperature field inside the PMSM based on heat transfer
theory and hydrodynamics. Reference [4] did analysis about
the depletions of permanent magnet and had verified the
availability of the calculation method of PMSM’s
temperature rise. but about the effects of the length of rotor
wafters on rotor temperature rise for PMSM, there are not
much research materials to refer to. PMSM’s heat load of
rotor occupies a large proportion of the total heat load.
Therefore, it is of great significance to research the effects of
the length of rotor wafters on rotor temperature rise for
PMSM.
∂T
= 0. (2)
∂n
∂T
−λ = α (T − T f ) . (3)
∂n
Where: T is the temperature needed, its unit is K. Ȝx is the
thermal conductivity of motor material in x direction, Ȝy is
the thermal conductivity of motor material in y direction, Ȝz
is the thermal conductivity of motor material in z direction,
their unit is W/(m•K). q is heat produced by per unit volume
of motor, its unit is W/m3. Į is the heat radiating coefficient
of radiating surface, its unit is W/(m2•K). Tf is the fluid
temperature contacting with motor radiating surface, its unit
is K.
The fluid that flows in PMSM should satisfy the laws of
physical conservation which include law of conservation of
mass, law of conservation of momentum and law of
conservation of energy, the fluid is assumed to be steadily
flowing and incompressible, so the governing equation of the
three-dimensional fluid can be presented as follows:

978-1-5386-3013-6/17 $31.00 © 2017 IEEE 1478

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DOI 10.1109/ICISCE.2017.308
 ∂ ( pu ϕ ) ∂ ( pv ϕ ) ∂ ( pw ϕ ) ∂ § ∂ϕ · Stator core of the PMSM is made of silicon steel sheet,
+ + = ¨Γ ¸ its thickness is 0.5mm. Stator winding is wrapped by
∂x ∂y ∂z ∂x © ∂x ¹ . (4)
enamelled wire which is made of copper. Rotor core is made
∂ § ∂ϕ · ∂ § ∂ϕ · of silicon steel sheet too, its thickness is 0.5mm. Material of
+ ¨¨ Γ ¸¸ + ¨Γ ¸+ S
∂y © ∂y ¹ ∂z © ∂z ¹ permanent magnet is N30SH magnet steel, they are installed
in rotor surface by plug-in structure. Spindle is made of 45
Where: u is component of the speed in x direction, v is steel and it is used to withstand mechanical loads. Motor
component of the speed in y direction, w is component of the base is made of cast iron and it is used to fix the core and
speed in z direction, their unit is m/s. ī is expansion factor. S winding. Spline is made of 45 steel too. The parameters of
is source item. ij is universal variable. p is fluid density, its motor’ materials are shown in Table 1.
unit is kg/m3.
TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF MOTOR’ MATERIALS
B. Basic assumptions
Materials Thermal Density Specific heat
When analyzing the temperature rise of the motor, first, conductivity ˄kg/m3˅ ˄J/kg•ć˅
make the following basic assumptions in the solution area[7]: ˄w/m•ć˅
45 steel 50.2 7850 434
a) When analyzing the temperature distribution, the Silicon steel
effect of the pole arc on it is not taken into account. 40 7650 465
sheet
Copper 379 8900 386
b) The PMSM in this text uses distributed winding, Cast iron 40 7800 470
when modeling, the flexion of the winding should not be N30SH magnet
7.7 8100 120
taken into account, but use linear bar to take the place of its steel
Equivalent air
end. gap
0.061 2.1 780
c) According to axial dissymmetry, the truncation Air 0.031 1.3 1004
surface of the motor’s enclosure, rotor core, stator core,
spindle, air gap can be viewed as insulation surface.
III. INTERNAL HEAT SOURCE AND HEAT TRANSFER
d) When doing the software simulation, about the heat
COEFFICIENT OF EACH PART
transposition coefficient of enclosure external surface,
stator end face, rotor end face, just take their average value First, record various loss values of the PMSM under
into account. rated condition through experiments, then use the knowledge
of PMSM[8] to deduce the calculation formulas about heat
C. Motor parameters. transfer coefficient of each part. The calculation formulas
This paper studies a 4 pole 18 slot PMSM, its rated can be useful for further simulation and analysis.
power is 7.5kw, its rated voltage is 380v. There are many A. Internal heat source of permanent magnet synchronous
bolts, bearings and other widgets in the motor, they have
motor
little influence on the temperature rise and are not easy to
calculate. Therefore, in order to make the analysis easy, the The internal heat source mainly contains stator copper
three-dimensional model of the motor will be simplified as loss, stator iron loss, eddy current loss, rotor iron loss and
follows: other forms of loss. Loss distribution of PMSM under rated
The motor’s bolts and bearings which have little condition is shown in Table 2.
influence on finite element analysis results should not be
TABLE II. LOSS DISTRIBUTION OF PERMANENT MAGNET
taken into account, just modeling and analyzing the main SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR
parts of the motor such as stator, winding, rotor, permanent
magnet, spindle and motor base which mostly influence the Location Stator Stator Eddy Rotor Other
distributio copper iron current iron forms of
temperature rise. The simplified 3d model is shown in Fig.1. n loss loss loss loss loss
Loss
718 857 374 135 291.67
˄W˅

B. Heat transfer coefficient of outer surface of motor case

1.stator core 2.stator winding 3.rotor core4.permanent
magnet 5.spindle 6.motor base 7.spline 8.rotor watfer
Figure 1. Simplified model of PMSM.
When the fluid directly contact with the surface of motor
case and motor case temperature is higher than fluid’s
average temperature, there will be heat transferred from
motor case to the fluid. So there exists a thermal convection
process from outside to the surface of motor case. Assumed
that the temperature of the surface of motor case is same as
outside, the heat transfer coefficient of the surface of motor
case can be calculated by (5):.

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(
∂ = ∂0 1+ k v )3 θ .
25
Where: Į0 is the heat transfer coefficient of exothermic
surface in calm air, its value is 14. k is the coefficient of
airflow efficiency, its value is 0.5. v is the fluidity of end
face air. ș is the temperature of the surface of motor case.
C. Heat transfer coefficient of end surface of stator and
rotor
When the PMSM is working, because of the heat
produced by stator, the heat will inevitably be transferred
between stator and rotor. some of the heat is transferred to
rotor through air gap, then the heat will be transferred to
surrounding air by the heat transposition between permanent
magnet, core and winding of the rotor and external
environment, some of the heat is transferred to cold air in the
motor through the end surface of stator. so, the convection
heat transfer coefficient between stator, rotor and the
PMSM’s internal air can be calculated by (6):.
1 + 0 . 25 v .
∂=
0 . 045
Where: Į is heat transfer coefficient. v is fluidity of end
surface air.
The heat transfer coefficient of PMSM’s outside surface,
stator end surface, rotor end surface can be calculated by (5)
combined with (6) and it is shown in Table 3.
TABLE III. HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT OF EACH PART
Outer surface of motor End surface of End surface of
case stator rotor
(W/m2Ьć) (W/m2Ьć) (W/m2Ьć)
12.99 15.2 22.2
IV. SIMULATION OF TEMPERATURE RISE
A. Simulation result of the whole motor
Import the main internal heat source, heat transfer
coefficient and the motor model into ANSYS
WORKBENCH, then proceed to analyze the temperature
simulation result, the simulation result of the motor’s
temperature distribution is shown in Fig.2.
Figure 2. Temperature distribution of PMSM.
B. Rotor temperature simulation on different length of
(5)
rotor wafters
It is known from Fig.2 that because of the rotor wafters,
the temperature rise of the rotor is much less than the
stator’s, so it can be concluded that rotor wafter has a huge
influence on the heat transposition of the rotor. In order to
analyze the specific influence of the rotor wafters length on
rotor temperature rise, set the length of rotor wafters as
5mm,10mm,15mm,20mm, then import them into ANSYS
WORKBENCH to simulate the rotor temperature rise,
finally, observe and compare their simulation results.
1) When the length of rotor wafters is 5mm: Fig.3 shows
the temperature distribution of the rotor when the length of
rotor wafters is 5mm. It can be known from Fig.3 that when
the length of rotor wafters is 5mm, the middle of the rotor
has the highest temperature, it is 90.3ć.
(6)
Figure 3. Temperature distribution of the rotor when the length of rotor
wafters is 5mm.
2) When the length of rotor wafters is 10mm: Fig.4
shows the temperature distribution of the rotor when the
length of rotor wafters is 10mm. It can be known from Fig.4
that when the length of rotor wafters is 10mm, the middle of
the rotor has the highest temperature too, it is 88.5ć.
Figure 4. Temperature distribution of the rotor when the length of rotor
wafters is 10mm.
3) When the length of rotor wafters is 15mm: Fig.5
shows the temperature distribution of the rotor when the
length of rotor wafters is 15mm. It can be known from Fig.5
that when the length of rotor wafters is 15mm, the middle of
the rotor also has the highest temperature, it is 85.4 ć .
Compared to the length of 10mm, the temperature dropped
again.
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 C. Comparison between the simulation results and the
experimental data
Compare the simulation results with the experimental
data, we can easily find that the simulation results are in
good agreement with the experimental data, the curve is
shown in Fig.7.
92
ầ䛇乻㝄
90 ⭆樴㔘㌖

88

86
Figure 5. Temperature distribution of the rotor when the length of rotor
wafters is 15mm. 84

㷑⹎/K
4) When the length of rotor wafters is 20mm: Fig.6 82

shows the temperature distribution of the rotor when the 80

length of rotor wafters is 20mm. It can be known from Fig.6 78
that when the length of rotor wafters is 20mm, the part near
the rotor wafters has the highest temperature, it is 92.5ć. 76

Compared to the previous length of rotor wafters, the 74

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
temperature increased a lot, and the temperature rise of the 桶⇢攧⹎ /mm
rotor is higher than that without rotor wafters. 
Figure 8. Comparison between the simulation results and the
experimental data.

V. CONCLUSION
The following conclusions can be made by analyzing and
comparing the simulation result of rotor temperature rise
when the length of rotor wafters is
5mm,10mm,15mm,20mm:
a) Rotor wafters have a big influence on the
temperature rise of the rotor when PMSM is working, so the
length of rotor wafters should be taken into account when
Figure 6. Temperature distribution of the rotor when the length of rotor
wafters is 20mm. designing a PMSM or analysing rotor’s thermal property.
b) By properly increasing the length of rotor wafters,
Make a summary of the temperature simulation result rotor’s ability of heat dissipation can be effectively
when the length of rotor wafters is 5mm,10mm,15mm,20mm improved. Because of the increase of wafters’ length, the
and draw a correspondence curve between the rotor’s highest velocity of the internal air is increased and the ability of
temperature and average temperature along with the length heat dissipation is improved, but the air friction loss is
of rotor wafters, the curve is shown in Fig.7. increased too, result in the temperature rise of the rotor
94 drop down first and then rise up. so ,choosing proper length
㚨檀㷑⹎ of rotor wafters is very important and it can effectively
⸛⛯㷑⹎
92
lower the PMSM temperature rise.
90 c) In the process of changing the length of rotor
88
wafters, the temperature rise of the rotor has a minimum
value, studying the length of rotor wafters when the
㷑⹎/K

86 temperature rise is minimum is of vital importance to

84
improve PMSM’s ability of heat dissipation.
d) From the comparison, we konw that the simulation
82
results are in good agreement with the experimental data, it
80 means that the simulation results and the conclusiom are
reliable.
78
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
桶⇢攧⹎ /mm ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Figure 7. Variation trend of the rotor temperature with the length of rotor This research was financially supported by the Applied
wafters. basic research project of Ministry of Communications

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(2015329811290) and the Excellent Dissertation Cultivation
Funds of Wuhan University of Technology (2016-YS-081).
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