Coupled Electromagnetic and Thermal Solution for Electric Machine Design

Xiao HU Zed (Zhangjun) TANG ANSYS, INC.

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Introduction
Electric machine design is a multi-physics problem
Electromagnetic Fluid and thermal Mechanical (Stress, Vibration) Power electronics/control

Electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical designs are interrelated

Losses from electromagnetic design affect temperature Temperature rise will change material properties Thermal induced mechanical stress

A design environment that accommodates all physics and their interaction is highly desired
ANSYS Workbench environment
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Simulation Driven Product Development - Electric Machine Design Methodology

Much better solution with ANSYS CFD/Mechanical

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Maxwell2D for Electromagnetic Majority of Electromagnetic Designs are Done in 2D for Electric Machine
>80% Faster Enough accuracy

Maxwell2D Transient Solver

Transient excitation Transient motion Motion induced transient effects

Coupling between Maxwell3D and ANSYS is possible and follows the same design flow
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Design Flow

Centroids Workbench Mesher

Temperature

Geometry Workbench DM Maxwell UDP

Losses Maxwell

Mapped Losses
ANSYS Mechanical (automated) ANSYS CFD (Scripted)
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Accurate Loss Coupling Most Losses are Distributed Eddy loss (PMs) Core loss (Stator & Rotor)

Time Averaged Spatial Losses Time constants are very different for electrical and thermal
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Export Thermal Data to ANSYS Mechanical

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Import Maxwell Loads to ANSYS Mechanical

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Maxwell 2D ANSYS Thermal

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Mechanical Eigenmode analysis of thermal pre-stressed model with Maxwell 3D transient losses

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1.75 KHz mode results of pre-stressed structural model

Thermal deformation

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Need for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) CFD is the science of predicting fluid flow and heat transfer by solving mathematical equations Electric machine cooling involves fluid flow and heat transfer and thus can benefit from CFD simulation

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CFD Models for Electric Machine Conjugate heat transfer with mapped losses from Maxwell Solids with different properties Liquid or air for cooling Air trapped inside electric machine Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) used to account for rotor rotation Steady state solution with the impact of rotating rotor

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Cooling Methods for Electric Machines

Forced convection liquid cooling Most effective cooling Expensive Forced convection air cooling Effective cooling Somewhat expensive Natural convection air cooling Not as effective Cheap

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Test Cases and Purposes Three test cases are conducted to see the effectiveness of cooling and different temperature and its gradient distribution
Cooling Method Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Forced Water Forced Air Natural Air Mesh Size (K) 916 1007 899

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Geometry/Mesh
A sector of geometry is used Periodic boundary Hex is used in most of the regions Except for the winding and the fluid region surrounding it, etc. Forced air cooling has an air domain outside

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Loss Distribution for All Cases

Spatial eddy loss distribution for the magnets Spatial core loss distribution for the rotor, stator yoke, and stator teeth Stranded winding copper loss All losses, which are highly non-uniform, are from Maxwell2D

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Temperature Distribution
Max temperature are 398K, 517K, and 550k respectively Forced water cooling is the most effective and natural air cooling is the least. Forced water cooling gives similar max temperature gradient Temperature gradient is responsible for thermal stress. To keep both temperature and its gradient low is the best

Forced water cooling

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Forced air cooling

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Natural air cooling

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Summary for Forced Cooling Forced water cooling is the most effective. Natural air cooling is the least effective. Forced water cooling, however, does not necessarily give the least temperature gradient. Natural air cooling may face challenge of high temperature. Forced water cooling may face challenge of high temperature gradient.

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Observations about Natural Convection Cooling

Natural convection Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) is relatively uniform compared with forced convection Natural convection cooling can be simulated by using a constant HTC instead of a full CFD calculation. Well accepted industry practice. Air trapped inside electric machines is not effective in heat transfer and thus can be removed from the calculation. Air gap kept but modeled by STILL air (details next) If air domains both inside and outside of the electric machine are removed, the problem becomes purely conductive No full CFD

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Ineffectiveness of Trapped Air

Relatively low velocity and uniform temperature of the trapped air explains its ineffectiveness for heat transfer

Velocity vector of trapped air (note the max velocity is only 2.5 m/s)
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Temperature distribution of trapped air (note the temperature scale goes from 500K to 530K)
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Test Cases Using Natural Convection Air Cooling

Case 3 is from previous study and is used as a based line case here. Case 4 contains only solids Case 5 also contains the air gap between the rotor and stator to improve the accuracy.
The air gap is treated as if it is solid Cooling Method Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Natural Air Natural Air Natural Air Trapped Air Yes No No Full CFD Yes No No Air Gap Yes No Yes Mesh Size (K) 899 394 397

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Temperature Distribution
Max temperatures are 550K, 566K, and 563k respectively Trapped air has minimum impact on max temperature as expected Air gap has an impact on rotor temperature distribution

Air gap

Full CFD (case3)

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Solid only, no CFD (case4)

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Solid and air gap, no CFD (case5)

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Comparison

Max Winding Temperature (K) Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 550 566 563

Error 0% 2.9% 2.4%

Max Rotor Temperature (K) 528 508 523

Error 0% 3.8% 0.95%

Performance on 4 CPUs

4 ~ 12 hrs <10 minutes <10 minutes

The full CFD case is assumed to be correct.

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Summary for Natural Cooling

Trapped air in general does not have significant impact on temperature distribution except for the air gap between the rotor and stator

Adding a layer of STILL air in the gap can improve accuracy This could be the best comprise considering its much quicker solution than a full CFD calculation. Note that forced cooling still needs CFD due to highly localized heat transfer coefficient

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Conclusion
Forced convection cooling is effective and its thermal analysis needs CFD due to highly localized heat transfer coefficient Natural convection cooling can be effectively simulated without full CFD and thus making the simulation much easier and faster Trapped air has impact on the solution only in the gap region, which can be modeled using a layer of STILL air. ANSYS CFD can be used to perform either the full CFD calculation or the simplified conduction calculation ANSYS Mechanical can be used to perform the pure conduction, thermal stress, free modal, and pre-stress modal analysis

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