Numerical and experimental determination of external heat transfer coefficient in small TENV electric machines

This paper presents a thermal analysis to determine the average natural convection and radiation heat transfer coefficients for a small totally enclosed not ventilated (TENV) synchro-reluctant motor. A numerical solution based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is compared with empirical correlations and experimental measurements for validation. For CFD calculation, a 3D housing shape is modelled in the steady state. Experimental measurements are made using K thermocouples and an infrared camera. The thermal analysis is done for the horizontal position. This study shown the possibilities of fitting numerical results in order to reduce the CPU time and compare this method with classical empirical correlations.