Enhancement of magnetic flux distribution in a DC superconducting electric motor

Abstract

Most motor designs require an air gap between the rotor and stator to enable the armature to rotate freely. The interaction of magnetic flux from rotor and stator within the air gap will provide the thrust for rotational motion. Thus, the understanding of magnetic flux in the vicinity of the air gap is very important to mathematically calculate the magnetic flux generated in the area. In this work, a finite element analysis was employed to study the behavior of the magnetic flux in view of designing a synchronous DC superconducting electric motor. The analysis provides an ideal magnetic flux distribution within the components of the motor. From the flux plot analysis, it indicates that flux losses are mainly in the forms of leakage and fringe effect. The analysis also shows that the flux density is high at the area around the air gap and the rotor. The high flux density will provide a high force area that enables the rotor to rotate. In contrast, the other parts of the motor body do not show high flux density indicating low distribution of flux. Consequently, a bench top model of a DC superconducting motor was developed where by motor with a 2-pole type winding was chosen. Each field coil was designed with a racetrack-shaped double pancake wound using DI-BSCCO Bi-2223 superconducting tapes. The performance and energy efficiency of the superconducting motor was superior when compared to the conventional motor with similar capacity. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.