Highlights

20242023202220212020older

2020

Advanced Superconducting Motor Experimental Demonstrator (ASuMED)

Air traffic is expected to grow worldwide after the Covid crisis, causing a significant increase in the global emissions. Thus, the ACARE Flightpath 2050 from the EU seeks reductions of CO2 by 75 %, NOx and particulates by 90 %, and noise by 65 %. Distributed electric propulsion can achieve these goals thanks to both higher efficiency and, more importantly, the possibility to drastically improve the overall aircraft aerodynamics. Both batteries and fuel-based turbine generators can provide the electric power. The goal of the Horizon 2020 project ASuMED is to construct a 1 MW full superconducting experimental motor, to be tested in laboratory conditions. The motor uses stacks of high-temperature REBCO tapes in the rotor as strong permanent magnets and REBCO windings as efficient stator. Maybe our most important result for 2020 is the modeling cross-field demagnetization of high-temperature superconducting REBCO stacks on the rotor for the relevantly high number of tapes (100) and up to 2 million cycles. Such high number of cycles is essential, since typical ripple fields of 1000 Hz frequency reach 2 millions of cycles in just 33 minutes of flight. We also developed strategies to reduce the energy loss in the stator below 0.04 % of the total power.

  • Dadhich, A. and Pardo, E.: Modeling cross-field demagnetization of superconducting stacks and bulks for up to 100 tapes and 2 million cycles, Sci Rep. 10 (2020) 19265.
  • Dadhich, A., Pardo, E., and Kapolka, M.: Time constant of the transverse-field demagnetization of superconducting stacks of tapes, Supercond. Sci Technol. 33 (2020) 065003.
  • Li, S., Kováč, J., and Pardo, E.: Coupling loss at the end connections of REBCO stacks: 2D modelling and measurement, Supercond. Sci Technol. 33 (2020) 075014.
  • Benkel, T., Lao, M., Liu, Y., Pardo, E., Wolftädler, S., Reis, T., and Grilli, F.: T–A-formulation to model electrical machines with HTS coated conductor coils, IEEE Trans. Applied Supercond. 30 (2020) 5205807.