Lightweight Design of Fully Superconducting Motors for Electrical Aircraft Propulsion Systems

This paper describes and discusses fully superconducting motors (FSCMs) for electrical aircraft propulsion systems. The FSCM structures have a potential to reach over 20 kW/kg, thanks to air cored structure and higher current density coils while permanent magnet synchronous motors reached 5 kW/kg. We designed 3 and 5 MW FSCMs with YBCO field coils and MgB2armature windings. The FSCM output density is aiming to achieve over 20 kW/kg. To satisfy the output density, we considered back iron thickness and magnetic flux leakage with FEM. The design results show that an output density of the 3 and 5 MW motors reached 19.4 and 25.2 kW/kg, respectively. Also, magnetic flux leakage at a distance of almost 100 mm from the motors was on the order of tens of mT.