Thermal Analysis of a Tubular Permanent Magnet Linear Generator using Multiphysics Solver

This paper presents the thermal design aspect of linear generator. A study is carried out to investigate the temperature effects on the components in linear generator. One of the most important components in the linear generator, Neodymium Iron boron (Nd-Fe-B) permanent magnet is emphasized in this study since it provides a magnetic field source for the linear generator and the influence of its electromagnetic properties towards temperature will affect the performance of linear generator. In this paper, the generator is coupled with the internal combustion engine which tends to produce heat. Due to the high temperature from the combustion engine and the heat produced by the current carrying conductors, thermal analysis on different physical aspects has been done. In order to achieve an accurate result, the multiphysics solver is used to analyze the thermal analysis for both electrical and thermal problem. Finite element method (FEM) is used to observe this coupled field effect.