HTS armature design and testing for fully superconducting aviation motors

To achieve the ambitious zero-emission aviation goal, electrified aircraft propulsion systems are proposed as a potential solution. The requirements of multi MW electrical machines with high power density and efficiency make the fully superconducting machines a promised solution. This study gives a design of a fully superconducting aviation motor focusing on armature windings using 2G HTS coils.

The prototype chosen in this study is a double-stator single-rotor axial flux motor with a rated power of 200 kW. The topology of two stators is chosen to increase the electrical loading. A general analytical method of sizing axial flux electrical motor with multi stators and/or rotors is given and modified to satisfy the machine design using HTS coils.

The HTS armature winding in this design uses double pancake coils with two tapes stacked together. For fully superconducting machines, HTS armature winding is mainly suffered from its relatively high AC loss under high background field produced by HTS rotor coils. Hence this study is mainly focusing on the analysis of this AC loss. The two dominant contributions of the loss are evaluated here: The hysteresis loss of tapes under background field up to 2T. The other is the coupling loss due to the current coupling multi superconducting filaments. The coil is tested with different currents as well as frequencies. The results are validated with measurements, and finally, the HTS armature coil design is determined.