Thermal performance analysis of a 30 kW switched reluctance motor

The cooling performance of a 30 kW switched reluctance motor (SRM) has been evaluated numerically to investigate the cooling design for this motor. The physical model of the 3D motor with exact size has been established using Solidworks. Both JMAG-Designer and ANSYS-FLUENT commercial software were employed to study the electromagnetics, velocity and temperature field for numerical analysis. Aluminum cooling fins were fitted on the cooling casing of the motor in order to enhance the convection heat transfer. Fin design with the same heat transfer area has been discussed. Both air cool and water cool designs of the 30 kW SRM have been examined and discussed for comparison as well. Results show that the maximum temperature in SRM cannot be reduced to a requested operating temperature with air cooling only even with fin design on the casing. They also indicate that liquid cooling is a better approach for SRM cooling. In addition, the Reynolds number of liquid coolant is the key parameter which affects the thermal cooling of SRM. In present study, the temperature rise of motor winding in SRM has been reduced to 42% with liquid water cooling and the maximum temperature in SRM is approximately 128.8 °C.