A Time-Saving Approach for the Thermal Lifetime Evaluation of Low Voltage Electrical Machines

Madonna, Vincenzo; Giangrande, Paolo; Migliazza, Giovanni; Buticchi, Giampaolo; Galea, Michael

Abstract

Modern electrical machines, such as those employed in transportation applications are required to provide very high performance in terms of power (and torque) density and efficiency. The reality, however, is that the more these machines are “pushed“ in relation to power density, the more is the probability of failure of their insulation systems, through enhanced electrical and thermal stresses. On the other hand, regardless the power density level, the electrical machine still needs to respect the certification processes set by the international standards and procedures. Unfortunately, today reliability and lifetime are still not considered as main design objective functions right from the start of the design process. This is a direct result of a gap in knowledge in terms of the precise understanding of failure mechanisms. If physics of failure models are available, then reliability can be included at all design stages. Therefore, this paper proposes a method that shortens the time demanded for the thermal lifetime evaluation procedure or qualification of low voltage electrical machines. The theory behind the method is presented and then experimentally validated on custom designed specimens.

Citation

Madonna, V., Giangrande, P., Migliazza, G., Buticchi, G., & Galea, M. (2020). A Time-Saving Approach for the Thermal Lifetime Evaluation of Low Voltage Electrical Machines. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 67(11), 9195 -9205. https://doi.org/10.1109/tie.2019.2956378

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 22, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 5, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Deposit Date: Dec 12, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 20, 2019
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
• Print ISSN: 0278-0046
• Electronic ISSN: 1557-9948
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 67
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 9195 -9205
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/tie.2019.2956378
• Keywords: Design of experiments, Dielectric breakdown, Dielectric losses, Electrical machines, Electric motors, Insulation, Physics of failure, Thermal factors, Thermal stresses
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3542880
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8924928
• Additional Information: © 2019 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.