Improved LPTN-Based Online Temperature Prediction of Permanent Magnet Machines by Global Parameter Identification

Abstract

This article presents an improved lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN) based online temperature prediction method of permanent magnet (PM) machines by global parameter identification. The proposed global parameter identification incorporates not only the loss but also the magnetic information into a fifth-order LPTN and identifies the multiphysical magneto-thermal parameters as a whole. In the identification process, the nonlinear characteristics, including the magnetic saturation, the cross-saturation, the strand skin effect, and the speed-dependent convective heat transfer, are all considered. It can eliminate the cumbersome magnetic and loss measurement efforts and improve the overall identification accuracy compared with the traditional step by step identification method. Based on the identified multiphysical magneto-thermal model, the critical temperatures of the PM machines, together with the online losses and torque, can then be predicted in real time. The experimental results show that the proposed online temperature prediction method can track the real temperature variation with errors within 5 °C.