Estimation of Stator Winding Temperature of a Three-Phase Induction Motor

Abstract

This paper adopted a thermal network method (TNM) based on Motor-CADwith MATLAB/Simulink software, and finite element method (FEM) based on Motor-CAD with Flux2D software, to estimate the stator winding temperature of a totallyenclosed fan-cooled (TEFC), squirrel cage, three-phase induction motor. The threesoftware packages were adopted successfully with a good agreement among their resultsresulting in preferring using Motor-CAD in obtaining results, and using Flux2D withMATLAB to validate these results. The success of triple-software methodology will givethe induction motor designer a well-validated tool in attaining a safe motor operationwithout exceeding the maximum allowable stator winding temperature rise, and withoutusing an experimental test based on an expensive manufacturing motor.