Design of a Novel Halbach Superconducting Geared Machine for an All-Electric Aircraft

The design of a novel configuration of an outer rotor, partially high-temperature superconducting (HTS), magnetic geared synchronous machine for an all-electric aircraft (AEA) is presented in this article. This is characterized by a three-phase inner stator with traditional windings and the use of HTS in the outer rotor instead of the permanent magnets in Halbach array configuration to generate the magnetization field. Moreover, the HTS is employed in the modulation ring instead of the ferromagnetic pole pieces to properly produce the flux modulation effect by exploiting the inherent feature of HTS of type II of having a magnetic permeability close to zero unless very intense magnetic fields are applied. This configuration is intended to be used as an electric motor for a light AEA equipped with two propellers of 200 kW each. The optimal configuration design has been obtained by resorting to an optimization procedure based on a genetic algorithm included in the finite element analysis software JMAG, complying with several targets and constraints, to satisfy a specific objective function. Performance analyses reveal the effectiveness of the proposed design configuration and approach, ensuring the compliance with all the design targets.