Motor-CAD Software for Thermal Analysis of Electrical Motors - Links to Electromagnetic and Drive Simulation Models

Motor-CAD software is the unique software for the analytical lumped circuit thermal network analysis of electric motors. Motor-CAD is used by many of the most successful motor manufacturers to optimise the cooling of various motor types and cooling methods. At INDUCTICA 2009, Motor Design Ltd (MDL) presented a paper explaining the development of the Motor-CAD software, detailing the mathematics involved and giving examples of the software in use. This presentation gives details of work done to create automated links from Motor-CAD to other commercial software packages that are used to model the electromagnetic and electronic drive design, e.g. SPEED, FLUX and PORTUNUS. Using the new multi-physics environment it is possible to obtain a better optimum design than could be achieved by just considering the electromagnetic, thermal or drive design in isolation. For instance, the dependence of losses on temperature and temperature on losses are discussed in detail, as is the importance of accurate predictions of the magnitude and distribution of magnet and winding proximity losses on temperature estimation.