Flow, thermal, and vibration analysis using three dimensional finite element analysis for a flux reversal generator

Abstract

This paper presents the simulation of major mechanical properties of a flux reversal generator (FRG) viz., computational fluid dynamic (CFD), thermal, and vibration. A three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) based CFD technique for finding the spread of pressure and air velocity in air regions of the FRG is described. The results of CFD are mainly obtained to fine tune the thermal analysis. Thus, in this focus, a flow analysis assisted thermal analysis is presented to predict the steady state temperature distribution inside FRG. The heat transfer coefficient of all the heat producing inner walls of the machine are evaluated from CFD analysis, which forms the main factor for the prediction of accurate heat distribution. The vibration analysis is illustrated. Major vibration sources such as mechanical, magnetic and applied loads are covered elaborately which consists of a 3D modal analysis to find the natural frequency of FRG, a 3D static stress analysis to predict the deformation of the stator, rotor and shaft for different speeds, and an unbalanced rotor harmonic analysis to find eccentricity of rotor to make sure that the vibration of the rotor is within the acceptable limits. Harmonic analysis such as sine sweep analysis to identify the range of speeds causing high vibrations and steady state vibration at a mode frequency of 1500 Hz is presented. The vibration analysis investigates the vibration of the FRG as a whole, which forms the contribution of this paper in the FRG literature.

Keywords

flux reversal generator / air velocity / computation fluid dynamics / thermal analysis / vibration analysis / finite element analysis

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2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg