Thesis

HTS armature study for electrified aviation propulsion motors

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2025
Thesis identifier
  • T17256
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201953439
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • The continued expansion of global air traffic has highlighted the urgent need to reduce the global warming impact of the aviation industry. Traditional aircraft systems rely heavily on fossil fuels and contribute significantly to CO₂ and NOₓ emissions. To accomplish the goal of zero-emissions aviation, the proposal of More Electric Aircraft (MEA) or All Electric Aircraft (AEA) propulsion systems stands as a potential solution. Since conventional electric motors are too heavy for aviation, efficient multi-megawatt motors with high power density are needed, and cryogenic superconducting motors are a promising solution thanks to their high current capacity. However, high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coils cannot be widely used as motor armature windings until the cryogenic AC loss is reduced to an acceptable limit regarding motor power density and efficiency requirements. This thesis presents original research of the design and optimization of HTS armature coils focusing on the AC loss evaluation and reduction. With the help of experimental measurements and numerical simulations analysis, the standard 2G (second generation) HTS insulated coils are found to be competitive to copper/aluminium Litz wires for a megawatt (MW) level cryogenic motor working at a temperature around 40 K. In addition, the AC loss can be reduced by narrowing the tape width or adding a thin layer of stator back iron. This thesis also introduces a novel multi-stack coil structure to improve the HTS stator electrical loading while maintaining the mechanical and thermal stability. The transport current loss of this novel coil is investigated, and the AC loss can be minimized by balancing the inductance between the parallel stacks.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Yuan, Weijia
  • Zhang, Min
Resource Type
DOI

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