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Partial and fully superconducting (SC) machines promise high power density capabilities required for electric propulsion. These machines need to achieve high power densities while reducing electrical heat losses to minimize the required cryogenic power and subsequent additional weight. Hydrogen powered all-electric planes provide a design space where ac losses are manageable. However, the high electrical frequencies in high-speed fully superconducting machines pose a significant challenge to reducing armature ac losses. In high-speed applications, coupling loss in the SC armature coils dominates and becomes a barrier for practical application of these machines. In this paper a fully superconducting machine is proposed for a hydrogen powered regional all-electric plane. An air core design is considered utilizing low ac loss MgB2 wires. The design is targeted to achieve 50 kW/kg specific power while requiring ac losses to be less than 3 kW. This study explores the possibility of replacing a passive iron shield with active shielding coils to contain the magnetic flux inside the machine while reducing weight and increasing power density. The study focuses on minimizing weight as well as ac losses in the armature coils. An optimization algorithm is used to determine the trade-offs between iron shield and active shield coil designs. Results show that optimal designs for electric propulsion eliminate the passive shield in favor of active shielding coils - increasing the power density of the machine while maintaining the outside flux density below standard safety limits.

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Recent developments in low ac loss MgB 2 conductors are of significant importance given renewed interest in fully superconducting (SC) machines. Evaluating ac losses in fully SC machines is a critical step in developing feasible designs. In fully SC machines, SC armature windings experience non-uniform rotating magnetic fields, with spatial and temporal harmonics, which has an undisputed impact on ac losses. Existing ac loss models in the literature, which have been validated for stationary sinusoidal external fields, were extended to constant amplitude rotating fields. There is not enough research on validating the ac loss models for rotating non-uniform magnetic fields with harmonics. This paper proposes simplified methods to estimate the ac losses in conductors with non-uniform rotational applied magnetic fields experienced by the armature in a machine's environment. Extended analytical models are proposed to estimate the ac loss in single and multi-filament MgB 2 conductors. The models are then compared against finite element analysis (FEA) results with Power Law loss estimation to evaluate model fidelity.

A significant challenge in the design of fully superconducting (SC) machines is managing ac losses in the SC armature. Recent developments in MgB 2 superconducting conductors promise low ac loss conductors suitable for fully SC machines. This paper presents an optimized design targeting low losses and low weight for a 10-MW fully SC generator suitable for offshore wind turbine applications. An outer rotor air-core machine topology is investigated to optimize the design with low weight and low losses. An active shielding concept is used to minimize the pole count without adding excessive weight. This enables a reduction in the electrical frequency for a practical design by a factor of 4 to 5 over current designs, driving ac losses and active components weight lower by an order of magnitude. In this study, armature current is varied to control electrical and magnetic loading in order to minimize losses. A pole count study is conducted to identify the design space suitable for MW scale machines. A comparison is made between active shield, passive shield and a hybrid topology to address the benefits of an active shield for weight reduction. Results suggest that low-pole-count designs with MgB 2 conductors will enable machines with less than 1 kW of ac losses.