Thermal Analysis of Electrical

Machines

October 15th, 2019

Overview
1. Introduction

2. Heat Transfer Fundamentals

3. Thermal Analysis Methods

4. Motor-CAD capabilities
Overview
1. Introduction

2. Heat Transfer Fundamentals

3. Thermal Analysis Methods

4. Motor-CAD capabilities
Introduction
• Power output strongly affected by the machine
thermal capability as the operating temperature
limits the electric loading
• Magnets performance decrease with temperature
and overheating may lead to demagnetization
issues
• Copper resistivity is temperature dependent
• Thermal stress, thermal fatigue
• Winding insulation life limited (10°C “half life rule”)
• Bearing failure
• Machine life
Overview
1. Introduction

2. Heat Transfer Fundamentals

3. Thermal Analysis Methods

4. Motor-CAD capabilities
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Heat Transfer Mechanisms

• Three mechanisms by which heat is

transferred in electrical machines:
1. Conduction
2. Radiation
3. Convection
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Conduction Heat Transfer

• Heat transfer mode in a solid due to molecule vibration

• Good electrical conductors are also good thermal conductors
‒ Metals have large thermal conductivities due to their well ordered crystalline structure
• k is usually in the range of 15 – 400W/m/K
‒ Solid insulators have not well ordered crystalline structure and are often porous
• k is typically in the range of 0.1 – 1W/m/K (better than air with k = 0.026W/m/K)
‒ In an electrical machine, it would be desirable to have also materials that are good electrical
insulators and good thermal conductors at the same time
• Researches on materials are carried out to achieve this goal
• The calculation of conduction is complex for composite components such as windings,
bearings, etc…
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Conduction Heat Transfer

• Heat transferred from high to low Molecules in solid objects don’t

temperature: move – they vibrate of “jiggle”
𝑘𝐴 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑡 − 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑
𝑄= Solid
𝐿 conductor
• Effectiveness of the heat flow is
determined by the resistance:
𝐿 Heat conducts
𝑅= from warm to cold
𝑘𝐴
• Analogy with Ohm’s law: Heat source
L = path length [m];
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑡 − 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 A = Cross section area [m2]
𝑅=
𝑄 k = conductivity [W/m/K]
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Conduction Heat Transfer

• High slot fill factor solutions to pack as much

as possible in the slots of electrical machines

C. Carstensen, S. Bauer, R. Inderka, R.

W. De Doncker, “Efficiency Comparison
of Different Winding Configurations for
Switched Reluctance” Vehicle
Propulsion Drives 20th International
Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS-20),
Long Beach, USA, 2003

A. G. Jack, B. C. Mecrow, P. G. Dickinson, D. Stephenson, J. S. Burdess, N. Fawcett, and J.

T. Evans, “Permanent magnet machines with powdered iron cores and pressed windings,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 1077–1084, Jul./Aug. 2000.
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Conduction Heat Transfer

• Slot liner material may have a significant impact on temperature rise between the stator
laminations and winding
• Significant research efforts have led to the development of insulations materials that have
a higher thermal conductivity
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Conduction Heat Transfer

• Thermal conductivity impact of potting materials

• High performance liquid-cooled machines
• Conductivity is within 0.25 – 3.2 W/m/K

S. Nategh, A. Krings, O. Wallmark, and M. Leksell, “Evaluation of impregnation

materials for thermal management of liquid-cooled electric machines,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Electron., vol. 61, no. 11, pp. 5956–5965, 2014.
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Conduction Heat Transfer

• Tesla model S60 induction machine with EWG cooled stator and rotor
• Potted end windings to dissipate the copper losses directly to the housing water jacket
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Radiation Heat Transfer

• Heat from surface due to energy

transferred by electromagnetic
waves:
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑡 − 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑
𝑄=
𝑅
• Thermal resistance:
1 ℎ𝑟 = radiation heat transfer coefficient [W/m2/K]
𝑅= 𝐴 = area of radiating surface [m2]
ℎ𝑟 𝐴
𝜎 = Stefan-Boltzmann constant [5.669x10-8 W/m2/K4]
• Heat transfer coefficient: 𝑇1 = absolute temperature of radiating surface [K]
𝑇2 = absolute temperature of surface radiated to (ambient) [K]
𝜎𝜀𝐹1→2 𝑇14 − 𝑇24
ℎ𝑟 = 𝜀 = emissivity of radiating surface (ε < 1)
𝑇1 − 𝑇2 𝐹1→2 = view factor (F1-2 ≤ 1) – calculated from geometry
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Radiation Heat Transfer

From Stokes Research Institute

Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Convection Heat Transfer

• Heat transfer mode between a surface and a fluid in motion:

‒ Natural convection: fluid motion due to buoyancy forces that arise from
change in density of fluid due to temperature difference
‒ Forced convection: fluid motion due to external forces (fan, pump…)
• Two types of flow:
‒ Laminar: streamline flow at lower velocities

‒ Turbulent: turbulent flow created at higher velocities

• Heat dissipated by convection:
𝑇𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 − 𝑇𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑
𝑄 = ℎ𝑐 𝐴 𝑇𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 − 𝑇𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 =
𝑅
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Convection Heat Transfer

• Convection depends on the heat transfer coefficient ℎ𝑐 , determined empirically from test
data and/or CFD analysis. Rules of thumb can also be used in the first place:
‒ Air natural convection: 5 – 10W/(m2.C)
‒ Air forced convection: 10 – 300 W/(m2.C)
‒ Liquid forced convection: 50 – 20000 W/(m2.C)
• As convective heat transfer is dimensionless with Nusselt number (𝑁𝑢), ℎ𝑐 can be
calculated from empirical correlations based on dimensionless numbers (𝑅𝑒, 𝐺𝑟, 𝑃𝑟):
ℎ𝑐 𝐿
𝑁𝑢 = = 𝑓 𝑅𝑒, 𝐺𝑟, 𝑃𝑟 , 𝑅𝑒 = 𝑅𝑒𝑦𝑛𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑠; 𝐺𝑟 = 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑓; Pr = 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑡𝑙
𝑘
• This allows the same formulation to be used with different fluids, dimensions and models
of dynamic and geometric similarity to those used in the original experiment
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Convection Heat Transfer

• The dimensionless numbers depend of fluid properties, fluid

velocity (forced convection), temperature (natural convection),
gravity (natural convection) and size (characteristic length):
𝜌𝑈𝐿 𝑔𝛽𝜌2 𝑇𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 −𝑇𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 𝐿3 𝜇𝑐𝑝
𝑅𝑒 = , 𝐺𝑟 = , 𝑃𝑟 =
𝜇 𝜇2 𝑘
𝜇 = fluid dynamic velocity [kg/m/s]
𝜌 = fluid density [kg/m3]
𝑘 = thermal conductivity of the fluid [W/m/K)
𝑐𝑝 = specific heat capacity of the fluid [J/kg/K]
𝑈 = fluid velocity [m/s]
𝐿 = characteristic length [m]
𝛽 = coefficient of thermal expansion of the fluid [1/K]
𝑔 = acceleration due to gravity [m2/s]
Heat Transfer Fundamentals
Convection Heat Transfer
Rayleigh number
• General form of natural convection correlation:
𝑁𝑢 = 𝑓 𝐺𝑟, 𝑃𝑟 = 𝐶 𝑅𝑎 𝑛 = 𝐶 𝐺𝑟𝑃𝑟 𝑛
Curve fitting
coefficients
• Transition form laminar to turbulent: 107 < Ra < 109
𝑇𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 + 𝑇𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑
• All fluid properties are evaluated at the film temperature: 𝑇𝑓 =
2
• A lot of correlations are available in literature
• Motor-CAD automatically selects the most appropriate correlation that matches the cooling
type and the geometry shape (cylinder, flat plate, open enclosed channel…):
• The heat transfer coefficient is temperature dependent and it is needed to be solved iterative
in Motor-CAD
Overview
1. Introduction

2. Heat Transfer Fundamentals

3. Thermal Analysis Methods

4. Motor-CAD capabilities
Thermal Analysis Methods
Thermal Pre-sizing

• Method based on single parameter:

‒ Thermal resistance RTH [oC/W] h [W/(m2.oC)]
‒ Housing heat transfer coefficient P [W]
‒ Winding current density Twinding Tambient
‒ Specific electrical loading
• Thermal data from:
• Can be inaccurate due to the complex
‒ Single rule of thumb
nature of motor cooling
‒ Tests on existing motors
• Poor insight of where to concentrate the
‒ Competitors catalogue data design effort
Thermal Analysis Methods
Thermal Pre-sizing

Tables taken from “Multiphysics Simulation by Design for

Electrical Machines, Power Electronics, and Drives” ISBN
978-1-119-10344-8
Thermal Analysis Methods
Need for Accurate Thermal Modelling

• Wide range of possible values makes experience essential:

− Otherwise the design will not be correctly sized
− Values may differ with different manufacturing processes, materials…
• Simple motor sizing based on traditional methods such as limiting winding current density
or specific electric loading can’t be used for optimization:
− Depends on experience so tend to be highly inaccurate when investing something new in the
design
− Gives designer poor insight on where to concentrate design effort to reduce temperature rise
• There is a requirement for smaller, lighter and more efficient motors so more sophisticated
models are required
Thermal Analysis Methods
More Sophisticated Modelling Techniques

• Two methods available:

− Analytical lumped circuit method
− Numerical method
• Lumped parameter circuit:
‒ Motor-CAD Thermal module (3D)
• Numerical methods:
‒ Finite Element (FE)
‒ Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Thermal Analysis Methods
Analytical Lumped Circuit Analysis

• Lumps together the machine parts with similar

temperature into discrete nodes in a network.
• Thermal resistance, heat transfer and temperature
difference are analogous to electrical resistance,
current and voltage.
• The heat flow between the nodes is modelled using
thermal resistances, i.e. conduction, convection and
radiation.
• Proven formulations for difficult heat transfer
mechanisms such as conduction through bundles of
wire in slot, complex convection, interface gaps, etc.
• Power losses are placed at nodes where heat is
generated.
Thermal Analysis Methods
Analytical Lumped Circuit Analysis

• Thermal resistances placed on the circuit to model heat transfer paths:

𝐿
‒ Conduction → 𝑅 = → Path area 𝐴 and length 𝐿 from geometry, conductivity from material
𝑘𝐴
1
‒ Convection → 𝑅 = → Heat transfer coefficient determined empirically
ℎ𝑐 𝐴
1 𝑇1 − 𝑇2 Emissivity 𝜀 and view factor 𝐹 from surface
‒ Radiation → 𝑅 = = →
ℎ𝑟 𝐴 𝜎𝜀𝐹1→2 𝑇14 − 𝑇24 𝐴 finish and geometry

• Thermal capacitances for transient analysis:

‒ Capacitance = Weight x Specific Heat Capacity → From geometry and material data
Thermal Analysis Methods
Numerical Thermal Analysis

• Numerical method:
‒ Subdivide full machine into smaller models
‒ High quality mesh required for accurate results
• Finite Element Analysis (FEA):
‒ Useful for conduction heat transfers

→ e.g stator slot

• CFD:
‒ Can simulate complex fluid flow
Thermal Analysis Methods
Thermal Analysis Model Order

• Lumped circuit and numerical solutions have different levels of complexity and so model
setup and calculation times
Thermal Model Elements Computational Note
Model order Nodes time
CFD High Millions Hours/Days Good to obtain convective heat transfer
coefficient, predict flow distribution, difficult
to perform thermal transients
FEA Moderate Thousands Mins/Hours Good to model conduction heat transfer, 2D
FEA thermal solver can solve specific problem
very fast
Circuit Low 50 to 1000 Seconds Very fast to calculate complex thermal
(Full Node Model) transients
Thermal Analysis Methods
CFD Analysis vs Thermal Network

• Thermal network:
− Machine represented by an equivalent thermal network based upon the machine’s geometry,
materials, cooling methods, losses etc…
− Useful in the beginning of the machine design process to identify the important parameters
that affect the thermal performance.
• CFD method:
− Conjugate heat transfer problem solved numerically based upon the conservation of mass,
momentum and energy.
− Prepare, clean geometry, generate high quality mesh, select turbulence model to resolve the
heat transfer and rotating flow problem.
− High level of details but time for solution is more demanding (e.g. duty cycle analysis)
− Used to fine tuning the thermal design for complex issues, e.g. flow distribution, pressure drop,
heat transfer for hairpin winding, wafter effects, etc.
Thermal Analysis Methods
Design Process of Electrical Machines Design Specification

• Prototype: Possible Solutions

‒ High cost to build
• Numerical methods: Analytical Methods
Calibration Electromagnetic model
‒ Very time consuming
Thermal model
• Analytical methods:
− Fast calculation speed
Numerical Methods
− Reasonable accuracy FEA, CFD
− Critical to reduce the time taken
from initial design to production
Test and Prototype
Overview
1. Introduction

2. Heat Transfer Fundamentals

3. Thermal Analysis Methods

4. Motor-CAD capabilities
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Need for Advanced Modelling Techniques

• We need to know if the complexities of heat transfer can be modelled using thermal
resistances
• Forced flow in cooling channels, e.g. developing flow, non circular ducts, coolant type,
etc…
• Effects of rotation in rotor cooling channels, e.g. in the airgap
• Flow resistance models the flow distribution in a cooling system, e.g. fan characteristic
and system flow resistance
• Winding heat transfer
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Thermal Modelling in Motor-CAD

• Ultra fast analytical network analysis:

− Input machine geometry using dedicated
parametric editor
• Select cooling type, materials etc.
• Steady state or transient temperatures
• All difficult heat transfer data are calculated
automatically:
− Easy to use as motor designers who are
not heat transfer specialists
− 18 years old of practical experience built
into the heat transfer and flow algorithm
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Winding Temperature Resolution

• To improve hotspot prediction, the number of nodes for the winding can be varied based
on the temperature resolution required and if there is an uneven distribution of losses.
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Cooling Types (1)

• TENV:
‒ Totally Enclosed Non Ventilated
− Natural convection from housing
• TEFC:
‒ Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled
− Force convection from housing
• Through Ventilation
• TE with Internal Circulating Air:
− Internal air circulating path
− Water Jacket as heat exchanger
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Cooling Types (2)

• Open end-shield cooling

• Water Jackets
− Axial or circumferential jacket
• Spray Cooling
− Example: oil spray cooling of end-
windings
• Direct conductor cooling
− e.g. slot ducts with oil
− Submersible cooling, wet rotor,
wet stator
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Flow Network Analysis

• Used to calculate flow through the

ventilation system (water jackets,
through ventilation, etc.).
• Proven empirical correlations to
calculate pressure drop due to duct
wall friction and flow separation.
• Once the flow rate through the
cooling system is calculated we
can determine the fluid velocity and
the corresponding convection heat
transfer using convection
correlations.
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Integrated Thermal FEA Solver

• Allows fast calibration of winding thermal resistance network and improved understanding
of winding hotspot location
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Calibration with CFD Analysis

• CFD results can be used to calibrate Motor-CAD models, convection and flow formulations
Motor-CAD Capabilities
Sensitivity Analysis

• Machine design involves some

uncertainty due to the
manufacturing process, nature of
turbulent flow, electromagnetic
design, etc.
• Sensitivity analysis is highly
recommended to gain an in-depth
understanding of the main
restrictions to cooling.
• Design effort can then be focused
on the main cooling issues.
 This document contains proprietary information of Motor Design Ltd.
Such proprietary information may not be used, reproduced, or disclosed to any other parties for any other purpose without the expressed written permission of Motor Design Ltd. © Motor Design Ltd 2019 All Rights Reserved.