Coupled Electromagnetic–LPTN Analysis Under Steady and Transient Overload Condition of High-Speed PMSM for Mechanical Vapor Recompression Applications

Abstract

Overloading a high-speed permanent magnet synchronous machine (HSPMSM) results in a crucial increase in power losses, thus causing temperature rises in the HSPMSM, which can affect its electromagnetic and thermal performance. It is crucial to focus on critical temperature rises in HSPMSM’s components to avoid fault or excessive machine lifetime degradation caused by thermal stresses. Hence, both electromagnetic and thermal behavior need to be estimated accurately to ensure a safe machine’s operation. In the traditional thermal study by lumped parameter thermal network model (LPTNM), the losses induced in HSPMSM by electromagnetic prediction are comparable to the heat sources, and only the consequent thermal behavior is examined. Thus, thermal analysis of HSPMSM by single-way coupling of electromagnetic losses to LPTNM is less accurate. The two-way coupling approach of electromagnetic–LPTNM for HSPMSM is developed and implemented in this article, in which both the distributions of temperature and the temperature rise are estimated at steady and transient overload conditions, respectively. Due to the consideration of the two-way coupling effect, the electromagnetic and thermal characteristics could well be estimated more precisely using a limited number of iterations between the electromagnetic and LPTNM. The experimental testing of the two-way coupled predicted model results reveals that the suggested approach possesses superiority in both estimating performance and precision over traditional LPTNM, and it can be extended to different electrical machines.