Identification and Experimental Validation of an Induction Motor Thermal Model for Improved Drivetrain Design

The ability of an electric powertrain to perform according to mechanical specifications is equally important as assessing its thermal protection limits, which are affected by its electrical and thermal properties. Although rated parameters (such as power, torque, etc.) are easily accessible in catalogs of equipment producers, more specific properties like mass/length of copper winding, heat dissipation factor, etc., are not available to customers. Therefore, an effective selection of drivetrain components is limited due to the lack of sufficient data and the need to consult critical design decisions with suppliers. To overcome this limitation, we propose a method to estimate the temperature rise of motor drives based on popular loadability curves, which are provided in catalogs. A simple first-order thermal model is applied to represent heating/cooling phenomenon of motor drives. The parameters' identification process is formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem and solved using commercial software products. Within the proposed approach, it becomes possible to include the effect of reduced torque availability at low speeds in self-ventilated motors during design of electric actuation systems. Contrary to using a discrete set of permissible overload conditions from the catalogs, the current methodology allows for evaluating a temperature rise of a motor drive for any overload magnitude, duty cycle, and ambient temperature. This greatly improves flexibility of the design process and facilitates communication in a supplier-customer dialog. The discussed method is verified against reference overload recommendations, yielding the same thermal protection levels, and validated using the experimental results, producing identical motor temperature rise profiles as the ones measured on the laboratory test bench.