3D Lumped Parameter Thermal Network for Wound-Field Synchronous Generators

This paper proposes a 3D lumped parameter thermal network capable of estimating the temperature distribution in classical, salient-pole wound-field synchronous generators. The developed 3D lumped parameter thermal network can be used for the thermal design and/or analysis of any wound-field synchronous generator geometry, thus offering certain degrees of flexibility. As the accurate estimation of the loss distribution is critical for the accuracy of the proposed 3D lumped parameter thermal network, an electromagnetic finite element model is used in this paper as loss determination tool for an off-the-shelf 400 kVA generator considered as a case study. The simulated losses are validated against experimental measurements to safely include them in the developed network. Finally, the stator and rotor temperatures evaluated through the 3D lumped parameter thermal network are also validated by comparing them against experimental results.