Solar Plane Propulsion Motors With Precompressed Aluminum Stator Windings

James Widmer; Christopher M Spargo; Glynn J.  Atkinson; Barrie C.  Mecrow

doi:10.1109/TEC.2014.2313642

Solar Plane Propulsion Motors With Precompressed Aluminum Stator Windings

James Widmer, Christopher M Spargo, Glynn J. Atkinson, Barrie C. Mecrow

Newcastle University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

59 Citations (Scopus)

112 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper reports a propulsion motor for a solar-powered aircraft. The motor uses precompressed aluminum stator windings, with a fill factor of greater than 75%, in a permanent magnet synchronous machine. The motor performance is compared empirically to an identical machine with conventionally wound copper windings. It is shown that there are many advantages to using compressed aluminum windings in terms of weight reduction, thermal improvement, and lower cost, for the same loss and electromagnetic performance, provided a sufficiently high slot fill factor can be achieved. The design and manufacture of the compressed coils is also discussed. A modular stator arrangement is used, in the form of a solid coreback with keyed teeth to allow easy assembly of the compressed windings. It is noted that the electromagnetic performance of the machine is unaffected by the modular nature of the magnetic core. Two prototype motors, one wound with conventional copper and the other with precompressed aluminum windings, are constructed and tested.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	681 - 688
Number of pages	8
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion
Volume	29
Issue number	3
Early online date	18 Apr 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TEC.2014.2313642
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2014
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

© 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

Keywords

Aerospace
aluminum windings
compressed windings
electric motor
fill factor
high efficiency
solar plane

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10.1109/TEC.2014.2313642

Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 1.04 MBLicence: Unspecified

James Widmer
- Centre for E-Mobility and Clean Growth - Professor in Electric Propulsion Systems
Person: Teaching and Research

Cite this

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title = "Solar Plane Propulsion Motors With Precompressed Aluminum Stator Windings",

abstract = "This paper reports a propulsion motor for a solar-powered aircraft. The motor uses precompressed aluminum stator windings, with a fill factor of greater than 75%, in a permanent magnet synchronous machine. The motor performance is compared empirically to an identical machine with conventionally wound copper windings. It is shown that there are many advantages to using compressed aluminum windings in terms of weight reduction, thermal improvement, and lower cost, for the same loss and electromagnetic performance, provided a sufficiently high slot fill factor can be achieved. The design and manufacture of the compressed coils is also discussed. A modular stator arrangement is used, in the form of a solid coreback with keyed teeth to allow easy assembly of the compressed windings. It is noted that the electromagnetic performance of the machine is unaffected by the modular nature of the magnetic core. Two prototype motors, one wound with conventional copper and the other with precompressed aluminum windings, are constructed and tested.",

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note = "{\textcopyright} 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.",

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AU - Spargo, Christopher M

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N1 - © 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

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N2 - This paper reports a propulsion motor for a solar-powered aircraft. The motor uses precompressed aluminum stator windings, with a fill factor of greater than 75%, in a permanent magnet synchronous machine. The motor performance is compared empirically to an identical machine with conventionally wound copper windings. It is shown that there are many advantages to using compressed aluminum windings in terms of weight reduction, thermal improvement, and lower cost, for the same loss and electromagnetic performance, provided a sufficiently high slot fill factor can be achieved. The design and manufacture of the compressed coils is also discussed. A modular stator arrangement is used, in the form of a solid coreback with keyed teeth to allow easy assembly of the compressed windings. It is noted that the electromagnetic performance of the machine is unaffected by the modular nature of the magnetic core. Two prototype motors, one wound with conventional copper and the other with precompressed aluminum windings, are constructed and tested.

AB - This paper reports a propulsion motor for a solar-powered aircraft. The motor uses precompressed aluminum stator windings, with a fill factor of greater than 75%, in a permanent magnet synchronous machine. The motor performance is compared empirically to an identical machine with conventionally wound copper windings. It is shown that there are many advantages to using compressed aluminum windings in terms of weight reduction, thermal improvement, and lower cost, for the same loss and electromagnetic performance, provided a sufficiently high slot fill factor can be achieved. The design and manufacture of the compressed coils is also discussed. A modular stator arrangement is used, in the form of a solid coreback with keyed teeth to allow easy assembly of the compressed windings. It is noted that the electromagnetic performance of the machine is unaffected by the modular nature of the magnetic core. Two prototype motors, one wound with conventional copper and the other with precompressed aluminum windings, are constructed and tested.

KW - Aerospace

KW - aluminum windings

KW - compressed windings

KW - electric motor

KW - fill factor

KW - high efficiency

KW - solar plane

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DO - 10.1109/TEC.2014.2313642

M3 - Article

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JO - IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion

JF - IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion

IS - 3

ER -

Solar Plane Propulsion Motors With Precompressed Aluminum Stator Windings

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