Analysis of Temperature Distribution in Power Converter for Switched Reluctance Motor Drive

This paper presents a thermal model of power converter used in switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive under constant convective heat transfer. The distribution of the system temperature rise is derived based on the average heating power measured as SRM is running steadily, and the temperature rise is independent of ambient temperature which is proved in this paper. The accuracy of the thermal model is verified by comparing experimental data with the results derived from finite-element method (FEM) simulation. Furthermore, this study achieves optimization in heat sink geometry and the placement of power components with the present model.