Thermal test procedure and analytical model calibration method for electrical machines

Abstract

In this paper a thermal test procedure and a calibration method for lumped parameter models are presented. Analytical models provide fast thermal simulations in comparison with finite element methods (FEM) and computed fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Motor-CAD is a useful and easy configurable tool to simulate motor models, but the quantity of construction parameters makes difficult the calibration process of a model. This paper provides a thermal test process to test machines to calibrate analytical models. And the procedure to estimate temperatures and calculate their uncertainties is exposed. Also a calibration method is proposed to identify critical parameters on analytical models that determine thermal behaviour of the machine. Specific thermal test are designed in order to calibrate these critical parameters like the base in the test bench. Finally the calibration process is validated with 3 different but similar machines. The same analytic model with only construction differences satisfies experimental thermal tests of 3 machines.