Thermal Modeling and Management
R2026bUse these examples to learn how to model and manage thermal dependency and networks.
Featured Examples
Apply IGBT Switching Losses to Electrical Supply
Draw semiconductor switching losses from the electrical supply. Simscape™ Electrical™ contains models of individual semiconductor switching devices, sometimes referred to as discretes. Discrete ideal switching device models, such as the IGBT (Ideal, Switching) library block, apply switching losses to the thermal port by stepping the junction temperature at switching events. However, these blocks do not draw an equivalent amount of energy from the power supply at a switching event. If your circuit has a half-bridge structure, you can draw equivalent energy from the supply using a Half-Bridge (Ideal, Switching) block instead of using discretes. This example shows how to draw equivalent energy from discretes using a Probe block.
Import a Motor-CAD Thermal Model in Simulink and Simscape
Import an Ansys Motor-CAD motor model in Simulink®. This example also contains a previously generated Simulink reduced-order thermal model (SROTM) of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) with housing water jacket and self-ventilated cooling. You can download this model in MATLAB® or access it from MATLAB Central File Exchange and GitHub®.
PMSM with Thermal Model
A nonlinear model of a PMSM with thermal dependency. The PMSM behavior is defined by tabulated nonlinear flux linkage data. Motor losses are turned into heat in the stator winding and rotor thermal ports.
Quantifying IGBT Thermal Losses
The generation of a temperature profile based on switching and conduction losses in an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). There are two buck converters. For one converter, the IGBT attaches to a Foster thermal model. For the other converter, the IGBT attaches to a Cauer thermal model. The parameters for the thermal models are tuned to give roughly equivalent results. At a simulation time of 50ms, the driving frequency changes from 40kHz to 20kHz, which increases the conduction losses and decreases the switching losses. The change in the losses results in a corresponding change in the temperature of the IGBT.
Simple Induction Hob Simulation
Model a simple induction hob system using Simscape™ Electrical™ libraries. This model focuses on the electromagnetic effect of the winding coils and the eddy current effect in the cooking pot.
Use of Peltier Device as Thermoelectric Cooler
A Peltier device working in cooling mode with a hot side temperature of 50 degC. In cooling mode, the Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the Peltier cell is equal to the total heat transferred through the Thermoelectric cooler (TEC) divided by the electric input power, COP = Qc/Pin.
Thermistor-Controlled Fan
How fundamental thermal, mechanical and electrical components can be used to model a thermistor-controlled fan. The heat-generating device starts producing 2 watts at time zero, and then at 40 seconds this increases to 20 watts. The thermistor therefore heats up, and its resistance decreases thereby increasing the voltage across the PWM reference pins. This increases the PWM frequency which in turn increases average motor current, and the fan speeds up. The additional fan speed increases the convective cooling of the device, moderating the temperature increase of the device.
Optimize Liquid Cooling System of Inverter
Analyze the performance of a liquid cooling system for a three-phase inverter. To find the steady-state temperatures and losses, you first run detailed and reduced order models (ROM). Then you compute the optimal size of the heatsink that maximizes the inverter efficiency and minimizes the lifetime cost.
