The European Union-funded Advanced Superconducting Motor Experimental Demonstrator (ASuMED) project started in May 2017 with the purpose of demonstrating the benefits of a new, fully superconducting motor for reaching the targets established by the Flightpath 2050 plan. The project aims at a motor power density of 20kW kg−1 using a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) stator. The rotor will use HTS stacks operating like permanent magnets. A highly efficient cryostat for the motor combined with an integrated cryogenic cooling system and associated power converter will be used. This article provides a general overview of the prototype that is currently being assembled and that will be tested soon.
Hybrid electric propulsion has been identified as a potential solution to the ambitious environmental emissions and noise targets of the aerospace industry. Superconducting machines may be the key component of that topology enabling the high power densities and efficiencies needed in aerospace. Fully superconducting machines, however, are not a mature technology. This paper looks at the different machine design configurations focusing on the stator magnetic circuit of a fully superconducting motor. The motor has been designed for an aerospace distributed fan propulsion motor with an aerospace benchmark specification of 1 MW. The AC fully superconducting machine includes superconducting bulk magnets mounted on a conventional rotor core and an MgB2 superconducting wire wound stator. The AC losses in the stator winding are particularly sensitive to exposure to the main rotor field so different screening solutions were used to shield the superconducting windings from the rotor field. The effectiveness of the screening techniques for the stator coils and the impact on the machine performance and weight were evaluated for different stator designs, such as full stator core and air core with and without flux diverters. Various combinations of pole numbers, diverter geometries and magnetic materials have been checked. Results show that there is a tradeoff between stator iron losses and superconducting losses.
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