Designing an Advanced Electrical Motor for Propulsion of Electric Aircraft

Golovanov, Dmitry; Xu, Zeyuan; Gerada, David; Page, Andrew; Gerada, Chris; Sawata, Tadashi

Abstract

A prototype motor rated for 500 kW 3,000 rpm has been developed for aircraft electric propulsion. The design of the motor was optimized using a coupled parameter problem of electromagnetic, mechanical and thermal performances. A high power density of over 5 kW/kg is demonstrated without resorting to intensive direct liquid cooling. The design process considered variables including the winding conductor type, pole/slot combination, dimensions, winding layout and power electronics requirements. The final chosen design is a $3\times 3$-phase 30-pole 36-slot surface permanent magnet motor with Cobalt-Iron laminations, Sm2Co17 Halbach array magnets and litz wire for an optimum performance.

Citation

Golovanov, D., Xu, Z., Gerada, D., Page, A., Gerada, C., & Sawata, T. (2019). Designing an Advanced Electrical Motor for Propulsion of Electric Aircraft. In AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2019 Forum. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-4482

• Conference Name: AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum and Exposition, 2019
• Conference Location: Indianapolis, IN
• Start Date: Aug 19, 2019
• End Date: Aug 22, 2019
• Acceptance Date: Apr 4, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 16, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-08
• Deposit Date: Feb 6, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 17, 2020
• Publisher: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Book Title: AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2019 Forum
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-4482
• Keywords: Propulsion; electric aircraft; electric propulsions; permanent magnet motor; liquid cooling; thermal performance; eddy current; Campbell diagram; critical speed; coolant
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3909400
• Publisher URL: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2019-4482
• Additional Information: Copyright © 2019 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.