Thermal Resistance Network Modeling of Integrated Switched Reluctance Motor Drive System

Switched reluctance motors have a small weight structure due to the absence of rotor windings and permanent magnets. Integrating the controller into the switched reluctance motor enables an integrated motor drive system (IMDS) with small weight, high power density, and low EMI noise. The structure of the IMDS can lead to multiple complex heat sources present in the system. In this paper, we develop a thermal resistance network (TRN) model of a four-phase integrated switched reluctance motor drive system, which considers the thermal coupling between the driver and the motor and can predict the temperatures of key components such as motor windings and drive pow-er modules, and comparatively analyses the temperature rise of integrated and conventional motors. A finite element analysis (FEA) model is established, and the correctness of the TRN model is verified by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, and the results show the thermal coupling between the motor and the driver within the integrated motor.