Experimental Evaluation of Transposed Three-Parallel Conductors to Achieve Uniform Current in Armature Coils of Superconducting Motors

Abstract

Fully superconducting rotating machines with superconducting armature and field coils hold significant potential as electric propulsion systems for aircraft owing to their high power density (kg/kW). To support large current capacities in the superconducting armature coils of these motors, a multi-strand parallel conductor design was developed. Further, this study aimed to develop an optimum conductor design capable of incorporating any number of parallel conductors. To achieve this, three-strand parallel conductors were used. It was demonstrated that a uniform current distribution can be achieved using a novel transposition method within the winding. Herein, the winding process for this transposition method was developed to apply the desired configuration. The experimentally obtained current distributions of 33.4%, 35.2%, and 31.4% confirm the effectiveness of this method.