Design of a calorimeter for induction machine efficiency measurement by CFD modeling

This paper introduces a novel design of an open air type calorimeter for testing induction machines rated up to 30 kW. Developing a reliable design is much more difficult than it initially appears. This is one reason why calorimeters are not generally used for Standard tests. This paper demonstrates the degree of care required to define a precise calorimeter and attempts to construct a design for a general-purpose calorimeter. In this design, a novel Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of a calorimeter is proposed to investigate in detail the construction of this calorimeter and shows the improvements over the existing design at the University of Nottingham [1] based on simulations and tests.