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Electric Machines Thermal Simulations in Ansys Solution

Course Overview

Correct simulation of an electric motor will help reduce cost and increase efficiency. As motors continue to get smaller and work harder, excess heat is produced, and efficiency is greatly reduced. In some extreme cases, permanent magnets can even reach their limit and become demagnetized. Thermal management is a big challenge that needs to be analyzed early in the design process.

Simulating all aspects of a motor from electromagnetic fields and their loss distribution to structural integrity from thermal stresses will help with early design trade-offs and considerations. A simulation to show electromagnetic fields and the heat losses associated with them in Ansys Maxwell is the first step to perform the temperature analysis.

Heat losses are automatically mapped as a 3D time-averaged input to Ansys Fluent. These results will be analyzed to reveal the critical areas for thermal performance and optimize design for cooling. Under certain circumstances, when it is not enough to consider single physics, Fluent and Maxwell can be coupled: Fluent will simulate different cooling methods and pass the temperature information back to Maxwell. These values are used to adjust temperature-dependent material properties and perform corrections to the electromagnetic field, to pass back to Fluent for further evaluation.

Prerequisites

Target Audience

Thermal Engineers, CFD Engineers and Motor Designers.

Teaching Method

Lectures and workshop sessions to validate acquired knowledge in addition to Industry Best Practices for modeling of real industrial designs. 

   

Learning Outcome

Following completion of this course will be familiar with:

  • Become familiar with key steps to setup a Maxwell 2D analysis for a permanent magnet machine.
  • Import a 3D geometry in SpaceClaim and perform part management.
  • Create a mesh for Fluent in Fluent Meshing environment using the Watertight Meshing Template.
  • Map electromagnetic heat losses calculated in Maxwell to a Fluent mesh in both 1-way and 2-way methods in Workbench.
  • Setup and solve a thermal conjugate heat transfer (CHT) model in Fluent.
  • Post-process CFD results to gain insight for design.

 Available Dates

Learning Options

Training materials for this course are available with a Ansys Learning Hub Subscription. If there is no active public schedule available, private training can be arranged. Please contact us.

Agenda

This course is a compilation of four workshops and hands-on tutorials.