Probleemstelling:

Picanol is a developer of high-tech weaving looms located in Ieper. One of the components of such a system is an in-house designed switched reluctance motor to drive the main shaft (see figure 1). This motor is currently cooled by a jacket around the stator which combines oil cooling through channels in the jacket and air cooling by fins on the outside through which air is blown by a fan. Picanol would like to acquire more insight in the different heat flows in the motor jacket and the design choices for such a jacket. This can lead to better thermal management and more efficient operation of the electric machine.

Figure 1: Picanol’s switched reluctance motor

Doelstelling:

The goals of this thesis are:

Based on the jacket geometry and motor heat losses, a lumped parameter model is made to estimate the heat flows to the oil and air flow.
Computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are made of the flow and heat transfer for both the oil and air flow and the combination of both.
The simulations are validated by measurements done by Picanol.
Suggestions are made for the improvement of the cooling jacket and are validated by additional simulations.

This project aids in achieving sustainable development goal (SDG) 12: responsible consumption and production, by improving energy efficiency in the manufacturing industry.