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Progress Toward the Critical Design of the Superconducting Rotor for NASA's 1.4 MW High-Efficiency Electric MachineNASA Glenn Research Center is developing a 1.4 MW high-efficiency electric machine for future electrified aircraft to reduce energy consumption, emissions, and noise. This wound-field, synchronous machine employs a self-cooled, superconducting rotor to achieve excellent specific power and efficiency. This paper presents the progress made over the past year toward a critical design of the superconducting rotor, including refined analysis and risk reduction testing on prototype superconducting coils. A 3D finite element model of the rotor is developed to simulate the combined loading imposed by the initial cool down of the rotor from room temperature to cryogenic temperature and the subsequent rotation of the rotor up to the design speed. The model is evaluated to better predict the stress state in the critical components and the reduction in physical gap between the stator and rotor due to the resulting radial deflections. This model includes an enhanced model of the superconducting coil that considers the coil as an assembly of four individual coil layers. An improved coil fabrication process is described in detail. Two sub-scale test coils are fabricated and then tested under repeated thermal cycling between room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K). It is demonstrated that the proposed coil fabrication procedure can produce no-insulation, high temperature superconducting coils that can survive several thermal cycles without apparent degradation.
Document ID
20190030740
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Scheidler, Justin J.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Tallerico, Thomas F.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Miller, Wesley A.
(Vantage Partners, LLC Brook Park, OH, United States)
Torres, William
(Wolf Creek)
Date Acquired
September 11, 2019
Publication Date
August 22, 2019
Subject Category
Mechanical Engineering
Report/Patent Number
GRC-E-DAA-TN70698
Meeting Information
Meeting: AIAA / IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium (EATS)
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Country: United States
Start Date: August 22, 2019
End Date: August 24, 2019
Sponsors: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
Funding Number(s)
WBS: 081876.02.03.05.02.02.02
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNC14BA11B
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNC12BA01B
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Technical Review
Single Expert
Keywords
electric machines
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