CFD modelling of an entire synchronous generator for improved thermal management

Connor, P. H.; Pickering, S. J.; Gerada, C.; Eastwick, C. N.; Micallef, C.

Abstract

This paper is the first in a series dedicated to investigating the airflow and thermal management of electrical machines. Due to the temperature dependent resistive losses in the machine's windings any improvement in cooling provides a direct reduction in losses and an increase in efficiency. This paper focuses on the airflow which is intrinsically linked to the thermal behaviour of the machine as well as the windage power consumed to drive the air through the machine. A full CFD model has been used to analyse the airflow around all major components of the machine. Results have been experimentally validated and investigated. At synchronous speed the experimentally tested mass flow rate and torque were under predicted by 4% and 30% respectively by the CFD. A break-down of torque by component shows that the fan consumes approximately 87% of the windage torque.

• Conference Name: 6th IET International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD 2012)
• Conference Location: Bristol, UK
• Start Date: Mar 27, 2012
• End Date: Mar 29, 2012
• Acceptance Date: Jul 1, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Jul 19, 2012
• Publication Date: Aug 13, 2012
• Deposit Date: Nov 11, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 11, 2022
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Series Title: IET Conference Publications
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1049/cp.2012.0290
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/13463903
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6242142
• Additional Information: © 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.