Study on a Novel Hybrid Thermal Network of Homopolar Inductor Machine

The thermal analysis is necessary for the design and safe operation of the homopolar inductor machine (HIM) applied in the flywheel energy storage system (FESS). However, due to its unique three-dimensional (3-D) structure, the thermal analysis of HIM relies on the 3-D finite element analysis (FEA) or computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which is time-consuming and computationally inefficient. To facilitate the thermal analysis and design of HIM, a fast and accurate analytical model is essential. In this article, the novel 2-D and 3-D hybrid thermal networks combined with a coupled iterative analysis method are proposed to predict the temperature of HIM. First, the structure, operation principle, and material properties of HIM are illustrated. Second, the heat sources of HIM, including iron loss, rotor eddy current loss, rotor air friction loss, copper loss, and bearing loss, are fully analyzed and investigated. Third, the proposed hybrid thermal model (HTM) and coupled iterative analysis method are demonstrated and applied to predict its temperature. The proposed thermal model and analysis methods are explained in detail. The influences of different speeds and operation conditions on the temperature rise of HIM are analyzed based on the proposed thermal model and FEA. Finally, the temperature of an HIM prototype is tested, which proves the accuracy of FEA and the proposed method. The proposed HTM can quickly and accurately predict the temperature of HIM, which provides a new idea for the temperature prediction of this kind of machine.