Numerical study on electromagnetics and thermal cooling of a switched reluctance motor

In this study, the coupled thermomagnetic system of a switched reluctance motor for cooling performance improvement has been conducted numerically. The switched reluctance motor (SRM) with output power of 3 kW and air cooling is under investigation. Aluminum cooling fins are fitted on the cooling casing of the motor in order to increase the convection surfaces. The commercial softwares used in this paper are JMAG-Designer and CFD-RC for electromagnetic field and thermal field analyzes, respectively. The electromagnetic analysis for the switched reluctance motor is obtained in advanced in order to obtain the energy losses. They can then be treated as the heat sources for heat transfer analysis. Transient solutions for the temperatures of the components in SRM are calculated during operation. The transient temperature of SRM is analyzed for both with and without cooling casing. The influence of forced convection by the internal fan of the SRM is also under investigation. Results show the numerical model is in good agreement to the real practice. The model can be used for the SRM cooling design. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.