Simplified Thermal Model of a Radial Flux Motor for Electric Vehicle Application

Heat transfer is the science that seeks to predict the energy transfer that takes place between material bodies as a result of a temperature difference. When designing an electric motor, the study of heat transfer is as important as electromagnetic and mechanical design. However, due to its three dimensional nature, it is generally considered to be more difficult than the prediction of the electromagnetic behaviour. For this reason, and the fact that the majority of designers have an electrical rather than mechanical background, thermal analysis is usually not given as much emphasis as the electromagnetic design. This paper presents the thermal model simplified of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) with radial flux for electric vehicle (EV) application. The thermal design technique used is the analytical lumped circuit. The equivalent circuit of the motor is implemented and simulated with MATLAB simulator. Simulations by Motor-CAD software were made in order to shows the accuracy of the proposed thermal model.