A Study on the Performance Improvement Using Electromagnetic Brake Electromagnetic-Thermetic Analysis

In this paper performance improvement of an electromagnetic brake is investigated based on electromagnetic–thermal coupled analysis. In a normally closed electromagnetic brake continuous current is supplied to the coil to maintain the brake release condition, which results in ohmic loss in the winding and consequently causes temperature rise and degradation of electrical performance. In particular for a sealed brake structure heat dissipation is significantly limited; therefore the current density of the coil and the resulting thermal behavior become critical design parameters. Accordingly this study focuses on a design approach that explicitly considers current density to improve the brake performance. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional finite element analysis were conducted to evaluate the electromagnetic characteristics and losses, and the calculated losses were subsequently applied to thermal analysis. The analysis results demonstrate that the model derived from the proposed design process exhibits stable convergence of the winding temperature under continuous operation conditions. Furthermore despite the increase in winding resistance due to temperature rise, it was confirmed that the braking operation is not adversely affected.