Thermal Modelling of Power Components using Load Current for a Medium Voltage Drive in Simulink Platform

Thermal management of power electronic devices is of prime importance in any industrial application. In this paper, a method to simulate the thermal behavior of transformer, inverter, and motor in variable speed drives is proposed. Virtual testing of drives is very essential before proceeding to the real-world tests of the complete system. In MATLAB Simulink environment, thousands of test scenarios can be carried out without an actual system. Among all the major milestones for motor drives is the design and testing of an appropriate cooling system. If the loads and the losses in the overall system are well distributed within the device, the overload and temperature rise can be prevented. This requires the use of accurate models for thermal loss calculation. To address this concern, thermal modelling in Simulink is a promising solution for testing medium voltage drives. The present model takes all the losses into account which can be modelled in Simulink. The thermal model is inserted in a function by providing the required input i.e. operating current which can calculate the temperature profile of the medium voltage drive. The medium voltage drive model has been tested in simulation platform with scaled down powers and the results obtained are compared with the data sheet values.