Publications

High-performance superconducting electric motors have taken transportation electrification to a new era and are of great interest for future hydrogen-powered electric propulsion aircraft. Fully superconducting air-cored motors have great potential to achieve high power density and efficiency. This paper introduces a novel equivalent circuit model for a superconducting motor to analytically calculate magnetic field distribution and then estimate its key performance, including motor electromagnetic torque as well as loss in the rotor electromagnetic shield. Layer theory is used in the airgap winding for rapid evaluation in the early design stage to achieve an effective solution. The paper employs an equivalent circuit to decompose and represent the stator, rotor, airgap, and electromagnetic shield. The parameters of equivalent circuit model are calculated based on the physical dimensions. The results from this analytical methodology are compared and validated with simulations of a 2D finite element model in COMSOL.