The present study deals with the thermal behavior of an electric motor used in navalpropulsion. A permanent three-dimensional model based on a nodal approach was developed topredict the thermal behavior of the machine in permanent state. The various heat transfermodes playing a role (mainly the conduction, the convection and the mass transfer) aretaken into account. The three dimensional developed model provides information (in termsof heat fluxes or temperatures) for the whole machine. A parametric study using this modelis carried out aiming at two objectives. The first one consists in an evaluation of theinfluence of several factors on the temperature distribution. The second one aims atobtaining the inception of the thermal optimization and evaluating the more efficientcooling techniques or solutions.
