The main focus of this work is to investigate thermal performance of self-contained drum motor drive systems (SCDMDS). All components of a SCDMDS are contained inside a rotating drum including the electric motor, gearbox, and an air/oil multiphase flow. A considerable amount of heat is generated within the SCDMDS from various sources, namely, the electric motor losses, the oil viscous dissipation and the gearbox losses. In meantime, a limited amount of heat is dissipated through the surface of the rotating drum and the side flanges. Therefore, a SCDMDS sometimes encounters a serious overheating problem, which often results in electric motor failure.
The different heat generation and dissipation mechanisms as well as the two-phase flow within the SCDMDS have been studied experimentally and numerically under different operating parameters, namely, the oil level (OV), the drum rotational speed (N), the torque (ζ), the number of motor poles (n) and the electric motor dimensions. The effects of rubber lagging material and thickness as well as the use of rubber belts have been investigated as well.
The numerical part of the present study has been carried out using Ansys-CFX and was validated using experimental data. Results showed that the optimum oil level (OV) for the best thermal performance is about 65%. The increase in the rotational speed (N) enhanced the heat transfer within the SCDMDS due to the improved oil splashing.
Viscous dissipation (VD) between the motor stator and the rotating drive drum was found to be almost negligible. However, oil viscous dissipation within the gap between the motor rotor and stator was found to have an important effect on the thermal performance. An analytical model has been developed and implemented using MATLAB to estimate VD within the motor.
The losses from the gearbox were studied experimentally and numerically considering planetary and co-axial gear trains. The numerical work was carried out using the KISSsoft and KISSsys software. Results showed that the increase in the drum rotational speed (N) or the drum torque (ζ) increased the gearbox losses. In the planetary gearbox, any increase in the OV increases the churning losses, however, the increase in OV increased the losses in the co-axial gearbox up to OV = 31% beyond which the losses remained constant.
After understanding the complex interplay between all the heat generating and dissipating mechanisms within the SCDMDS, a number of possible modifications have been proposed in order to resolve the overheating problem. The effect of cooling the electric motor by using an axial air flow has been investigated. The effect of adding fins along the inner surface of the outer rotating drum has also been studied.
Correlations of the various contributing mechanisms have been developed. Based on a thermal resistance network, a SCDMDS sizing and performance assessment computer software tool in the form of a digital twin (DT) has been developed. A user-friendly interface has been developed using Visual Basics and Excel. The DT estimates temperature distribution and the amount of heat generated and dissipated from each component within the SCDMDS and hence it identifies whether the case is considered safe to operate or overheating is expected. In overheated cases, the DT also suggests several possible modifications the user could consider to resolve the overheating problem. The DT has been validated against several experimental case studies and found to be very reasonably accurate. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study is focused on investigating heat transfer and fluid flow inside a self-contained drum motor drive system (SCDMDS). The problem of interest involves multiple heat sources enclosed inside a tight space of the rotating drum. There is an electrical motor, gearbox and a multiphase (oil/air) flow inside the rotating drum of the SCDMDS. In this thesis, experimental test rigs were constructed to investigate the effect of a number of operating and geometrical parameters. In addition, numerical analysis of the multiphase oil/air flow was carried out using Ansys - CFX. The KISSsoft and KISSsys software packages were used to determine various types of heat losses within the geartrain. Due to the presence of multiple heat sources inside a confined space, overheating of a number of SCDMDS has been reported. The overheating problem worsened even more when rubber lagging is used to increase traction between the drive drum and the belt. Several correlations have been developed for various heat transfer mechanisms governing the overall thermal performance of the entire SCDMDS. An analytical model (a digital twin) has been developed using Visual Basics and Excel. The digital twin estimates the temperature distribution and the amount of heat generated and dissipated inside the SCDMDS. It has been validated against many case studies provided by the industrial partner. The model identifies the possibility of overheating and provides the user with several potential modifications to resolve it. Hence, the model can be used as a performance and design tool of various models of SCDMDS.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/28727 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Teamah, Ahmed M. |
| Contributors | Hamed, Mohamed S., Mechanical Engineering |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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