Solar Plane Propulsion Motors With Precompressed Aluminum Stator Windings

Widmer, J.D.; Spargo, C.M.; Atkinson, G.J.; Mecrow, B.C.

doi:10.1109/tec.2014.2313642

Solar Plane Propulsion Motors With Precompressed Aluminum Stator Windings

Widmer, J.D.; Spargo, C.M.; Atkinson, G.J.; Mecrow, B.C.

Authors

J.D. Widmer

C.M. Spargo

G.J. Atkinson

B.C. Mecrow

Contributors

Dr Christopher Donaghy Spargo christopher.spargo@durham.ac.uk
Other

Abstract

This paper reports a propulsion motor for a solar-powered aircraft. The motor uses precompressed aluminum stator windings, with a fill factor of greater than 75%, in a permanent magnet synchronous machine. The motor performance is compared empirically to an identical machine with conventionally wound copper windings. It is shown that there are many advantages to using compressed aluminum windings in terms of weight reduction, thermal improvement, and lower cost, for the same loss and electromagnetic performance, provided a sufficiently high slot fill factor can be achieved. The design and manufacture of the compressed coils is also discussed. A modular stator arrangement is used, in the form of a solid coreback with keyed teeth to allow easy assembly of the compressed windings. It is noted that the electromagnetic performance of the machine is unaffected by the modular nature of the magnetic core. Two prototype motors, one wound with conventional copper and the other with precompressed aluminum windings, are constructed and tested.

Citation

Widmer, J., Spargo, C., Atkinson, G., & Mecrow, B. (2014). Solar Plane Propulsion Motors With Precompressed Aluminum Stator Windings. IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 29(3), 681-688. https://doi.org/10.1109/tec.2014.2313642

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 20, 2014
Online Publication Date	Apr 18, 2014
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2014
Deposit Date	Jan 21, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Apr 26, 2016
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion
Print ISSN	0885-8969
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	29
Issue	3
Pages	681-688
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1109/tec.2014.2313642

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