When a component is subject to extreme temperatures or a high thermal flux its is often necessary to perform a thermal analysis to determine the temperature distribution throughout the component. This will check that operational temperature limits of constituent parts are not exceeded or to determine the need for safety guards to protect personnel from extreme heat (or cold).

Three variants of a  water cooled electrical motor stator were modelled, each variant had a slightly different method of cooling. Heat inputs and convection surfaces were applied to the model and the steady state  temperature distribution was determined. This gave the information the designers required to choose the most efficient cooling system.