Predicting Temperature Profile on the Surface of a Switched Reluctance Motor Using a Fast and Accurate Magneto-Thermal Model

In this article, a simplified 3D magneto-thermal model to study the temperature distribution over the housing of a Switched Reluctance Machine (SRM) is proposed. The main objective of such model is to study the temperature distribution profile on the body of the machine under various working conditions in order to introduce a temperature based signature to develop condition monitoring procedures. The analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer inside the SRM supports the hypothesis that the effect of turbulent flow of the fluid and the complex heat transfer phenomenon of the rotating parts can be simplified to a heat flux boundary condition representation of the heat loss. The accuracy of the model is validated through simulation and experimental results on a prototype SRM. The developed simplified model can be used as for prediction of temperature profile on SRM surface, well suited for fault diagnosis in SRM. The proposed methodology can be modified applied in developing a thermal model for other types of electric machines.