Thermal Analysis of Water Cooled ISG Based on a Thermal Equivalent Circuit Network

Recently, the interior permanent synchronous motor (IPMSM) has been applied to an integrated starter and generator (ISG) for hybrid electric vehicles. In the design of such a motor, thermal analysis is necessary to maximize the power density because the loss is proportional to the power of a motor. Therefore, a cooling device as a heat sink is required internally. Generally, a cooling system designed with a water jacket structure is widely used for electric motors because it has advantages of simple structure and cooling effectiveness. An effective approach to analyze an electric machine with a water jacket is a thermal equivalent network. This network is composed of thermal resistance, a heat source, and thermal capacitance that consider the conduction, convection, and radiation. In particular, modeling of the cooling channel in a network is challenging owing to the flow of the coolant. In this paper, temperature prediction using a thermal equivalent network is performed in an ISG that has a water cooled system. Then, an experiment is conducted to verify the thermal equivalent network.