Abstract
This paper proposes a simplified lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN) model for thermal analysis under the inter-turn short-circuit (SC) faults of a five-phase fault-tolerant permanent magnet (PM) motor for electric vehicles. The proposed model can consider circumferential heat transfer, variable copper loss, and uneven loss distribution. Firstly, an analytical calculation formula of inter-turn SC current is proposed to separate the copper loss of SC turns from electromagnetic simulation, and the accuracy of the formula is verified by finite element analysis (FEA). Secondly, a simplified LPTN model is proposed, the calculation formulas of the thermal resistance are given, and the simplified principle is explained. By comparing the results of different simplifications, it is found that the error between the simplified model and the original model is small. Finally, the proposed model is verified by experiments. The results show that the simplified model can achieve not only a high calculation speed but also a high accuracy. Moreover, the proposed model is applicable to all cases of asymmetrical temperature distribution.