Step-Shaped Field Winding Optimization of a Large-Capacity HTS Aircraft Propulsion Machine

The expense of superconductors is crucial in determining the feasibility of large-capacity superconducting machines and ambitious projects. Various superconducting coil (SC) arrangements, including step-shaped field windings, have been optimized by finite-element analysis (FEA) to minimize material usage. In this article, for precise design and optimization, the H homogenization technique is first implemented in the modeling of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) aircraft propulsion machine with the step-shaped field winding. Consequently, numerical model suffers from large execution time and computation burden, especially for optimization of structural parameters of large equipment. Then, an efficient method for superconducting machines with multiple groups of field coils stacked design optimization is proposed to achieve optimal performances as indicated by the high fundamental magnetic field, low total harmonic distortion (THD), and minimizing the price of the HTS winding. In addition, this article proposes enhancing bottom SC utilization in stacked superconducting machines by independently adjusting currents. The proposed machine is optimized and compared by the optimization method proposed in this article. Ultimately, the optimized superconducting machine exhibits excellent electromagnetic performance, notably reducing SC usage.