Shielded motor prevents overheating

An excessive temperature rise within a new £55m wind tunnel is avoided by encasing a specially adapted ABB motor within a special shield. The wind tunnel built by Mercedes AMG Petronas at Coventry University’s engineering and computing facility is used to model a wide range of objects from F1 racing cars to bicycles. 

The tunnel features a specially sized, high efficiency axial flow fan, designed by specialist fan-maker Fläkt Woods, to meet the wide air flow capacities needed. It is important that heat generated by the electric motor did not leak into the wind tunnel system as this would mean a re-sizing of the heat exchangers to cope with the temperature rise, adding cost and increasing energy bills.

A 110 kW ABB process performance induction motor was used with an encased through-flow cooling system. This allows heat from the motor to dissipate through the motors’ integral vane arrangement. Fläkt Woods used computational flow dynamics software to confirm that the motor and its ventilation system would meet the thermal characteristics required. An ABB variable-speed drive was matched to the motor to provide adjustable control of the wind speeds needed for various test regimes.

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