Electromagnetic-thermal coupled modelling and analysis of inter-turn short-circuit faults of a permanent magnet alternator

This paper describes a computationally efficient model for predicting transient and steady-state behaviours of a permanent magnet alternator (PMA) connected to an asymmetric PWM rectifier and load in aerospace applications under healthy and fault conditions. The model is validated by finite element and circuit coupled co-simulation. The developed model is used to predict the PMA performance under fault conditions and to identify fault signatures that can be exploited for the development of fault detection techniques. The developed electric model is coupled to the thermal model to predict hotspot temperature of the winding under the worst case inter-turn short-circuit condition and to estimate the winding lifetime.