Thermal network model and experimental validation for a motorized spindle including thermal–mechanical coupling effect

Abstract Thermal deformation caused by temperature rise have an influence on the dynamic performance of a motorized spindle. In turn, the change in the dynamic performance will affect the temperature rise and thermal deformation of the system. However, the latter was rarely focused on in the previous literature. Therefore, a thermal network model of motorized spindle is enhanced by considering the thermal–mechanical coupling effect. Then, an iterative method is presented to solve the coupled equations, and a temperature test rig of the motorized spindle is set up to verify the proposed model. The relative error between the predicted and experimental results at two test points decreases by 9.56% and 3.44% after considering the thermal–mechanical coupling effect. The comparison with the experimental results shows that the proposed model with thermal–mechanical coupling effect can obtain a more accurate temperature field than the previous model.