Thermal optimization of a tubular linear oscillating motor for directly driven LEHA application

Abstract

ABSTRACTEfficient cooling method is important to improve the output performance of electric motors. This paper presents three kinds of cooling methods for tubular linear oscillating motor (TLOM) in directly driven linear electro-hydrostatic actuator (LEHA) applications, i.e., cooling with heat sinks, water cooling and forced-air cooling, and compares the cooling efficiency in quantity systematically. The result shows that heat sink is suitable for the TLOM. Then, a detailed thermal model is proposed to analyze the temperature characteristics of the TLOM with/without heat sinks. Based on the thermal model, an optimized motor structure with a parabolic-profile heat sink is proposed, which helps the heat dissipation significantly. The heat dissipation property is validated with numerical results. Finally, thermal experiments under different current inputs are conducted, and the good agreement of experimental results with the thermal model and simulation results confirms the validity of the thermal model and the design of the linear machine.