Online Magneto-Thermal Coupled Model of PMECCs Using Measured Boundaries

Online modeling of the magneto-thermal coupled field (MCF) in permanent-magnet eddy-current couplings (PMECCs) has long been challenging since it exists in the copper layer and cannot be directly measured. This article proposes an online magneto-thermal coupled model (OMCM) to reconstruct the MCF using measured boundaries. The magnetic field (MF), eddy-current field (ECF), and temperature field (TF) in the MCF are coupled in an identical space-time united discretization system. Virtual boundary nodes are added to the system, which can adapt to different boundary conditions in electromagnetic and thermal analysis. The measured data of single-point sensors are spanned to continuous boundary conditions. An approximate solution of the MCF is derived based on the measured boundaries and the general solutions of Laplace's equation and Poisson's equation in magneto-thermal analysis. The three-dimensional distribution of the MF, ECF, and TF at each spatial node and time segment can be simultaneously calculated in matrix form by the OMCM. Furthermore, the output torque is estimated and compared with the conventional methods. A verification process is carried out to assess the reconstructed results, showing that the OMCM can yield results close to the verification sensors for various slips and air gaps.