Key

11370

Conference Year

2016

Keywords

motor cooling, scroll compressor, CFD analysis, stator profile

Abstract

With the increased pressure of cost, hermetic compressor sizing become an important part of the design optimization process, while maintain the same performance level in the same time. Hermetic compressor motor design also face the same challenge. However, reducing motor size for same compressor capacity will increase the motor power density, with the same motor cooling design as before, motor running temperature will be increased and this affect both motor life and reliability as well as passing UL certification requirement for compressors using OLP ( internal overload protector). Hermetic motor cooling improvement using thermal modelling has been investigated before by using thermal network method, with limited accuracy since this do not taken all thermal correlation between motor and compressors. (refer to Purdue paper: thermal modelling ro the motor in semi-hermetic screw refrigeration compressor under part load conditions) However, the real situation in terms of thermal and fluid distribution which affect motor cooling inside the compressor in much more complicated than a pure thermal lumped circuit can represent. With the usage of fluid and thermal coupled simulation method today, we can simulate and understand more accurately the correlation between motor and compressor heat transfer and fluid distribution to optimize motor cooling channel, both in static and dynamic stage, and keep motor temperature under the accepted level while main a good flow for the overall compressor performance. In this paper, different geometry of stator outer diameter profiles are investigated, to balance between the motor efficiency impacts versus the motor temperature increase, compressor and conclude the optimization in terms of stator outer profile for the compressor structure discussed in this paper. Motor efficiency results are calculated and also tested, motor cooling optimization also calculated and tested inside compressor. From the research work done here, we can see that by using CFD tool (ANSYS), compressor motor design engineers can find the optimal stator lamination design, and understand the biggest influence factor to motor cooling, but not important for motor electromagnetic design and performance. In future, if the design concentrated on the important factors, and optimize the motor cooling, compressor design in terms of sizing and cooling correlation would be well balanced between cost and performance.

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