Design Factors of High-Speed Turbo-Electric Distributed Propulsion System

Abstract

Turbo-electric Distributed Propulsion (TeDP) is a promising concept to achieve the operational goals of more electric aircraft. The application of TeDP architecture can achieve the desired weight reduction of an aircraft power system. The use of a superconducting machine is expected to provide the workaround for the weight issue, but its current state of technology has not yet been extensively tested for aircraft applications. Another more practical option is to directly couple the aircraft's propeller system to a high-speed permanent magnet (PM) electrical machine, eliminating the gear part that also contributes to the total weight. A critical part of the design for a high-speed PM machine is choosing the optimum magnet configurations. This study used finite element modelling to analyze the impact of scaling the PM’s critical parameters on the weight and machine speed. A prototype testing of a 2-KW high-speed machine, suitable for a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), was developed and tested. The results confirmed the following critical parameters that should be carefully designed to achieve the optimum output, such as the (a) number of winding turns, (b) stack length, (c) sleeve thickness, and (d) terminal voltage.