Modeling, Manufacturing, and Experimental Validation of an Electric Machine for Aircraft Propulsion
Name
andersen-hnanders-meng-eecs-2024-thesis.pdf
Description
Thesis PDF
Size
18.15 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b6a6f7d2c3333e0e44510b0355ee829b
Author(s)
Andersen, Henry
Advisor(s)
Lang, Jeffrey H.
Date Issued
February 2024
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The work presented in this thesis is part of an effort at MIT to develop a 1-MW electric machine which achieves the specific power necessary for hybrid-electric aviation: 13 kW/kg [1]. The models for torque and core loss used in the design of the 1-MW machine are revised and expanded based on experimental results obtained from a partially-manufactured prototype to guide the design of future high specific-power electric machinery.
To calculate the torque produced by the machine, the air-gap field created by a segmented Halbach array rotor is derived from Maxwell’s Equations. The closed-form solution for the air-gap field matches Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to within 1% and experimental data from the manufactured prototype to within the tolerance of the experiment. A method for modeling a slotted stator as a smooth cylinder with a surface current is applied to the stator of the 1-MW machine, and the average torque and torque ripple are calculated using the Lorentz-Kelvin force density. The analytical torque calculation computes 100,000 times faster than 2D FEA (0.56 ms vs. 44 s), and matches FEA to within 1.2%, making it ideal for initial machine design.
An experimental procedure is developed to measure the core loss and B-H curve of an iron lamination stack. This procedure is applied to various toroid samples and a stack of slotted stator laminations. A conventional lamination bonding process is found to raise core loss by 20% for 0.1-mm iron-cobalt laminations. An alternative stator-core manufacturing process, which results in no impact on core loss, is identified and experimentally verified. Based on the measured core loss of a stack of stator laminations, the 1-MW prototype is expected to remain within the thermal limits imposed by the winding insulation.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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