IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 17, NO.

2, JUNE 2007 1533

Design of HTS Axial Flux Motor for

Aircraft Propulsion
Philippe J. Masson, Member, IEEE, Marco Breschi, Member, IEEE, Pascal Tixador, and
Cesar A. Luongo, Member, IEEE

Abstract—Development of all-electric aircraft would enable

more efficient, quieter and environmentally friendly vehicles
and would contribute to the global reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions. However, conventional electric motors do not achieve
a power density high enough to be considered in airborne appli-
cations. Bulk high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials,
such as YBCO pellets, have the capacity of trapping magnetic
flux thus behaving as permanent magnets. Experimental data
show that one single domain YBCO pellets could trap up to 17
T at 29 K, which enables the design of very high power density
motors that could be used in aircraft propulsion. We designed a
superconducting motor based on an axial flux configuration and
composed of six YBCO plates magnetized by a superconducting
coil wound on the outside of the motor. The six-pole homopolar
machine uses a conventional air-gap resistive armature. Axial-flux
configuration allows several rotors and stators to be stacked to-
gether and therefore enables the use of one or several conventional Fig. 1. Axial flux motor conceptual design.
permanent magnet rotors to generate minimum safety torque in
case of loss of superconductivity. All-electric aircraft are expected
to be powered by fuel cells or turbo-generators fed with pure netic flux have to be generated. The more effective magneti-
hydrogen cryogenically stored that would provide the motor with zation is the field cooling method requiring cooling of the su-
a convenient cooling system at 20 K. This paper presents the
perconducting material under applied field and therefore a high
design and simulated performance of the motor for an application
in aircraft propulsion. field magnet has to be included in the design. We propose an
axial flux configuration using two sets of coils to trap high mag-
Index Terms—All-electric aircraft, electrical propulsion, safety netic flux in YBCO pellets, the coils are made of Bi2223 con-
torque generation, superconducting motor.
ductors and are cooled down with liquid hydrogen around 20
K. The coils are energized only during the flux trapping process
I. INTRODUCTION and can be used to re-magnetize the YBCO if needed. Flux creep
in YBCO is negligible at 20 K and magnetization can be con-

A XIAL flux motors using trapped flux magnets are expected

to exhibit very high power density and efficiency therefore
making them good candidate for airborne applications. NASA’s
aeronautics program includes the development of unmanned air-
craft that could stay in the air for a very long time thus making
efficiency the key design parameter. Superconductivity could
lead to very high efficiency as the excitation system would not
generated any losses, this is even more true for motors using
trapped flux magnets as current leads are not even needed after
magnetization thus reducing the thermal load at low tempera-
ture. The major issue is to trap the flux, as high values of mag-
Manuscript received August 27, 2006. This research was supported by the
NASA Vehicle Systems Program and the Department of Defense Research
and Engineering (DDR&E) division under the URETI on Aeropropulsion and
Power.
P. J. Masson and C. A. Luongo are with the FAMU-FSU College of Engi-
neering and the Center for Advanced Power Systems, Tallahassee, FL 32310
USA (e-mail: masson@caps.fsu.edu; luongo@magnet.fsu.edu).
M. Breschi is with the University of Bologna, Italy (e-mail: marco.
breschi@mail.ing.unibo.it).
P. Tixador is with the CRTBT/LEG, Grenoble, France (e-mail: pascal.tix-
ador@grenoble.cnrs.fr).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TASC.2007.898120
1051-8223/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
sidered permanent. This method of magnetization requires the
field coils to have a dedicated cooling system and thermal insu-
lation between the coils and the YBCO pellets since they need
to be in normal state while the total field is applied. The same
sequence can also be achieved by placing heaters on the YBCO
elements to keep them slightly above their critical temperature.
Fig. 1 shows the axial flux motor conceptual design and its com-
ponents.
II. HALE AIRCRAFT PROPULSION SYSTEM
High altitude long endurance (HALE) aircraft development
is part of NASA’s objectives, the main application would be
the design if a ultra efficient unmanned aircraft to track hurri-
canes. A typical mission for this aircraft would be a 14-day au-
tonomous flight. The increase of efficiency of the aircraft com-
ponents would considerably improve the mission potential du-
ration. Electrical energy represents an idea choice as electrical
devices usually present pretty high efficiencies. NASA has al-
ready prior experience in such a type of aircraft through the very
successful HELIOS, a flying wing that was operating with solar
cells during the day and fuel cells during the night. However,
HELIOS was able to carry only limited payload and was very

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1534
Fig. 2. Simplified operational diagram of an all-electric aircraft propulsion
system.
Fig. 3. Configuration considered in analytical model of axial flux machines.
sensitive to wind and weather, proof is its crash in 2003 due to
high wind. A hurricane tracker should be able to carry sensors
and instruments and therefore would require a large propulsion
power in the range of 450 kW at 3000 RPM. Power generation
could be done by using fuel cells fed by pure hydrogen cryo-
genically store onboard. Thrust can be generated using either a
propeller or ducted fan connected to an electrical machine. A
diagram of the system is shown in Fig. 2.
The presence of liquid hydrogen in the aircraft makes the
choice of superconducting technology obvious. Power con-
verters can also greatly benefit from cryo-cooling and their
operation around 20–30 K should lead to dramatic size reduc-
tions of power electronics based systems.
III. PRELIMINARY SIZING
The targeted application requires very high efficiency and
also very high power density close to that of gas turbines. Axial
flux configurations are proven to be more compact than cylin-
drical machines [1], especially if a very strong excitation field is
created. Trap flux in melt-textured YBCO pellets can reach very
high values, a maximum of 17 T at 29 K has been observed ex-
perimentally [2] showing the tremendous capability of this ma-
terial. The use of trapped field magnets (TFM) should lead to
very compact motors, the main problem being to find a simple
and economic way of trapping the flux. A preliminary design of
a 450 kW motor can be done using analytical equation based on
the simplified configuration shown in Fig. 2.
The electromagnetic torque T can be expressed as follows:
(1)
with the z component of the excitation flux density gener-
ated by the TFM, the electrical loading of the armature, the
different radii are represented in Fig. 3. The electrical loading
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 17, NO. 2, JUNE 2007
Fig. 4. Field coils to generate field to be trapped.
Fig. 5. Dependence of JC to applied field for Bi2223 at different temperatures
for longitudinal and transverse field.
of the armature in kA/m can be written with the number of
turns per phase and the winding coefficient:
(2)
A typical value for is 100 kA/m, which we chose as a
baseline for the design. The machine achieves 450 kW of power
output, with , , if the
excitation flux density generated by the YBCO pellets presents
a variation peak to peak of 6 T representing an effective value
of B of 3 T.
IV. FIELD COILS DESIGN
According to the preliminary sizing, the field coils have to
generate slightly above 6 T in the area where the YBCO plates
are located. A superconducting magnet is placed around the
motor to generate the external field to be trapped as in the Su-
persat machine [4] (Fig. 4). In order to increase the magnitude
of the field, another set of coils fed with opposite current have
been placed around the shaft to cancel the field in the unused
area around the shaft. The coil system is shown in the following
figure.
The coils are wound with Bi2223 tapes which electrical
characteristic is represented in Fig. 5 [3]. The lightened area in
Fig. 5 represents the operating area of the wire with a maximum
slightly above 80% of which is acceptable since the coils are
energized only during the magnetization of the YBCO.
Fig. 6 shows the flux lines and flux density magnitude during
the flux trapping process. The maximum flux density on the wire
MASSON et al.: DESIGN OF HTS AXIAL FLUX MOTOR FOR AIRCRAFT PROPULSION
Fig. 6. Flux distribution during flux trapping.
Fig. 7. Illustration of Bean’s model of field cooling of a superconductor.
is around 6.5 T. The field is almost canceled around the axis
thanks to the inner coils thus enabling an increased of the field
to be trapped. Flux density on the YBCO pellets has an average
of 6 T. The outer coil is 25 mm in thickness and the inner coils
20 mm, the considered filling ratio is 0.8, which is reasonable for
tapes. The cooling can be done by conduction from the outside
and through the shaft; a dedicated cryostat can be built for each
set of coils thus enabling the cooling of the YBCO plates with
a delay.
V. FLUX TRAPPING BY FIELD COOLING
Flux trapping in bulk superconducting elements can be ex-
plained by the Faraday-Maxwell equation.
(3)
At 20 K, current density in bulk YBCO plates is almost not
depending on the applied field and due to the material very high
n-value, the electrical field can be considered null. Therefore,
from (3) one can conclude that variations of B are not possible in
a superconductor and then that magnetic flux remains constant.
Fig. 7 illustrates the field cooling principle using Bean’s model,
the left side of the figure shows the applied external flux density
being inferior to which represents the penetration
field of the pellet. Once the superconductor is cooled down, ap-
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1535
Fig. 8. Simplified model of YBCO disks.
plied field is ramped down to zero and magnetization is created
as shown on the right side of Fig. 7. In this case, Bean’s model
is applied to an infinite plate; however, current distribution in
pellets should be different due to the important form factor. In
an attempt to simply determine the current distribution is the
YBCO pellets, a simple model has been developed and is shown
in Fig. 8. Due to the strong anisotropy of YBCO, one can con-
sider that all the induced current is flowing in the a-b planes of
the material. Therefore, we have modeled the plates as being
composed of several layers stacked together each layer having
its own current penetration depth.
Due to the almost non-dependence of to the applied field,
we considered it constant in the material. The model is aiming
at determining current distribution due to a field cooling of the
material and does not represent any hysteresis behavior. We can
express the magnetic flux seen by each layer as a function of the
current distribution as follows, with the surface of layer i and
B the flux density.
(4)
Determination of the current distribution can then be obtained
by minimizing the following cost function.
(5)
Minimization has been performed using simulated annealing
method with Mathematica. Results show that at 20 K for flux
densities in the range of 6 T, all the penetration depths of cur-
rent are very close due to the very high current density of YBCO
at this temperature. The current profile has been used to model
the TFM in ANSOFT Maxwell finite element analysis software.
The calculated trapped flux is presented in Fig. 9.
Simulation shows a maximum of 6 T on the middle armature
thus matching the preliminary design value.
VI. MOTOR PERFORMANCE
Magnetically active components of the motor have been mod-
eled in Maxwell 3D with only one phase of the stator. The cal-
culated torque using the model of Fig. 10 is 1060 Nm when ex-
trapolated to the electrical loading generated by the three phases.
Power output is then in good agreement with the preliminary de-
sign in the 450 kW range.
During operation, the field coils are not carrying any current;
losses are then almost only composed of Joule heating in the
1536 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 17, NO. 2, JUNE 2007

Fig. 11. LH2 tanks distributed in aircraft.

to happen, especially for unmanned vehicles. Energy density

of hydrogen is pretty high in the range of 5.7 kWh/kg. How-
ever, density is so low that large volumes are needed to store
hydrogen even in liquid form. Tanks can be distributed in the
Fig. 9. Flux density generated by trapped flux in YBCO pellets.
aircraft as shown in Fig. 11, or a cylinder can be added and con-
nected outside the aircraft thus modifying its shape. Fortunately
in aircraft design, it is easier to accommodate extra volume than
extra weight.
NASA’s prior experience with all-electric HALE aircraft has
been successful, the major problem being electric power gener-
ation. LH2 is one of the considered solutions to energy storage,
which make superconducting technology very likely to be used
in airborne systems.

VIII. CONCLUSION
We have presented the design of a high power density super-
Fig. 10. Motor modeled in Maxwell 3D showing only one phase of the stator. conducting motor using trapped flux magnets as excitation sys-
tems. With the help of two sets of coils, about 6 T can be trapped
in YBCO pellets thus generating a high electromagnetic torque
TABLE I
MOTOR DESIGN RESULTS while interacting with three resistive stators. The targeted appli-
cation requires very high efficiency components, since no ex-
citation current is required during normal operation, losses are
minimized and efficiency greater than 99% can be potentially
achieved. Airborne systems development is going towards more
electrical technologies, which promises a nice future for super-
conductivity applications.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Dr. Danielle Soban from Georgia Tech for
the helpful discussions on aircraft design.
resistive armature calculated around 2.3 kW. The theoretical ef-
ficiency is then 99.5% without taking into account the cooling REFERENCES
system. The motor characteristics are shown in Table I. The cal-
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culated power density is very high and in the range of that of kW—2700 rpm HTS motor design for aircraft propulsion,” presented
gas turbines making this motor very attractive for airborne ap- at the ASC2006, Seattle, WA, Aug. 28–Sept. 1 , unpublished.
plications. [2] M. Tomita and M. Murakami, “High-temperature superconductor bulk
magnets that can trap magnetic fields of over 17 tesla at 29 K,” Nature,
vol. 42, p. 517, Jan. 2003.
[3] American Superconductor web site: [Online]. Available: http://www.
VII. LH2 COOLING SYSTEMS amsuper.com
[4] A. Rezzoug, A. Mailfert, and P. Manfe, “Cryogenic supersaturated syn-
The cooling system is based on the availability of liquid hy- chronous machine optimization and first results,” IEEE Trans. Mag.,
drogen onboard. Hydrogen used as a fuel in aircraft is very likely vol. 20, no. 5, Sept. 1984.

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