NI HTS machine · Developing novel high temperature superconductor rotor windings for electric aircraft propulsion machines

Developing novel high temperature superconductor rotor windings for electric aircraft propulsion machines

This project is to apply the No-insulation high temperature superconductor (HTS) coil technique on the rotor windings of HTS machine in electrical aircraft propulsion, so that the thermal stability, reliability and safety of the HTS machine can be enhanced significantly. As a new winding technique, the key idea of NI HTS coil is to remove the turn-to-turn insulation of traditional insulated HTS coils. When a quench happens, the transport current can bypass the local hot spot automatically through the turn-to-turn metallic contacts, so that the thermal stability of the HTS coil can be enhanced. Now, it is absolutely unclear about the electromagnetic and quench behaviour of NI HTS windings under machine environment, which has never been studied so far. The aerospace sector is actively pursuing revolutionary design concepts toward hybrid-electric aircraft to further improve the environmental impact of air travel. The United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization plans to cut carbon emissions from airplanes by more than 650 million tons between 2020 and 2040. The EU plans to have more than 75 % reduction in CO2 and NOx emissions by 2050. These regulations are the key drive for the aviation manufacturers to design more efficient electric-hybrid aircraft, which can help to shift the industry to electric or turboelectric propulsion. The advancements of hybrid or electric power to improve automobiles serve as the base technology being applied toward aircraft. However, electric aircraft propulsion requires very high power density which cannot be achieved by conventional electric machines. High temperature superconductors (HTS) offer a transformative opportunity to develop electrical machines with high power densities, because their current-carrying capability is more than twenty times that of copper. This project will remove the largest challenge of the HTS machine, low thermal stability during quench, by applying the NI HTS winding technique. The HTS motor technique is one of the most promising propulsion design for electrical aircraft, which can match the demand of high power density. This project can make a considerable progress on the development of passenger electrical aircraft. The overall objective of this project is to develop a robust HTS winding technique with high thermal stability and enough safety for the future electrical aircraft motor/generator. This project will investigate the practicability and reliability of the NI HTS machine design, and the electromagnetic and quench behaviour of the NI HTS coils are studied in machine environment by a series of models and experiments.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union