Modelling electrical insulation degradation for an electrical machine used in a Rankine cycle unit for waste heat recovery on heavy-duty vehicles

This thesis details the design of a 48V/1500 RPM synchronous reluctance motor (SRM) for automotive applications. The goal is to use the machine in an Organic Rankine Cycle for the waste heat recovery on heavy duty vehicles. This could be a way to retrofit existing vehicle enhancing their efficiency thus reducing fuel consumption and environmental pollution. This electrical machine SRM has robust and simple rotor structure, utilizes low cost material and is tolerant to hostile environment and has relatively low switching frequency. The goal of the project is to analyze the thermal behavior at different spots of the SRM using the thermal analysis software Motor CAD. The same software was used to design of the machine, optimization and verifications of the motor performance. An extensive sensitivity analysis was done using the tools available in the Motor CAD simulation platform. Based on the simulation of Organic Rankine Cycle we wanted to see the power losses of the motor in temperature profile during the iterations in Matlab.