This article investigates the design of a 250 kW permanent magnet (PM) machine used for aircraft propulsion. The focus is to pursue high specific power (>20 kW/kg), high efficiency (>95%), and low thermal resistance direct-cooling design for the demanding aerospace applications. The proposed key-enabling technology is additively manufactured hollow conductors integrated with heat pipes. Compared to the existing high specific power PM machines for aerospace applications, the proposed design features a much lower speed - 5000 r/min without any torque amplifier, which helps promote the specific power of the overall system. Based on parametric finite-element analysis, tradeoff studies on a variety of winding configurations as well as geometrical parameters have been carried out, highlighting their impact on specific power, winding ac losses, and efficiency. AlSi ₁₀ Mg coil samples printed by direct metal laser sintering as well as thermal management system have been demonstrated to show the feasibility of the concepts.

Permanent magnet vernier machines (PMVMs) gained a lot of interest over the past couple of decades. This is mainly due to their high torque density enabled by the magnetic gearing effect. This study will provide a thorough review of recent advances in PMVMs. This review will cover the principle of operation and nature of magnetic gearing in PMVMs, and a better understanding of novel PMVM topologies using different winding configuration as well as different modulation poles and rotor structures. Detailed discussions on the choice of gear ratio, slot–pole combinations, design optimisation and role of advanced materials in PMVMs will be presented. This will provide an update on the current state‐of‐the art as well as future areas of research. Furthermore, the power factor issue, fault tolerance as well as cost reduction will be discussed highlighting the gap between the current state‐of‐the art and what is needed in practical applications.

With the growing interest in electrification and as hybrid and pure electric powertrains are adopted in more applications, electrical machine design is facing challenges in terms of meeting very demanding performance metrics for example high specific power, harsh environments, etc. This provides clear motivation to explore the impact of advanced materials and manufacturing on the performance of electrical machines. This paper provides an overview of additive manufacturing (AM) approaches that can be used for constructing permanent magnet (PM) machines, with a specific focus on additively-manufactured iron core, winding, insulation, PM as well as cooling systems. Since there has only been a few attempts so far to explore AM in electrical machines (especially when it comes to fully additively-manufactured machines), the benefits and challenges of AM have not been comprehensively understood. In this regard, this paper offers a detailed comparison of multiple multi-material AM methods, showing not only the possibility of fully additively-manufactured PM machines but also the potential significant improvements in their mechanical, electromagnetic and thermal properties. The paper will provide a comprehensive discussion of opportunities and challenges of AM in the context of electrical machines.

In this paper, a six-phase fault-tolerant modular permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) with a novel 24-slot/14-pole combination is proposed as a high-performance actuator for wheel-driving electric vehicle (EV) applications. Feasible slot/pole combinations of the fractional-slot concentrated winding six-phase PMSM are elicited and analyzed for scheme selection. The novel 24-slot/14-pole combination is derived from the analysis and suppression of the magnetomotive force (MMF) harmonics. By making use of alternate-teeth-wound concentrated winding configuration, two adjacent coils per phase and unequal teeth widths, the phase windings of the proposed machine is magnetically, thermally isolated, which offers potentials of modular design and fault tolerant capability. Taking advantage of the leakage component of winding inductance, 1.0 per unit short-circuit current is achieved endowing the machine with short-circuit proof capability. Optimal design of essential parameters aiming at low eddy current losses, high winding factor and short-circuit-proof ability are presented to pave the way for a high-quality system implementation.

The multiphase machine is a competitive candidate for applications where uninterrupted operation is demanded under post-fault conditions. In this paper, the decoupling vector control for a surface mounted five-phase permanent-magnet (PM) synchronous machine (PMSM) under single-phase open-circuit fault is investigated. The decoupled mathematical model of the five-phase PMSM under single-phase open-circuit fault is derived. Then, two post-fault control strategies are obtained, which are based on the principles of minimum copper loss and equal amplitudes of currents, respectively. The post-fault control strategy based on the feed-forward compensation is proposed in order to eliminate the influences of certain factors and decrease the current ripple. The validity of the post-fault control strategies is proved by experiments.

The electrical conductivity (EC) of additively manufactured conductors can be purposely controlled by changing as-built orientation and postprocessing conditions. This feature can be leveraged to minimize winding alternate current (ac) losses in electrical machines adopting solid conductors. This article deals with the additive-manufacturing-based winding design of a high-specific-power permanent-magnet (PM) machine for aerospace applications. Specifically, conductors near slot opening are designed with low EC to reduce winding AC losses, while conductors near slot bottom adopt higher EC to reduce direct current (DC) losses. Parametric finite element models are developed for a thorough design parametric analysis targeting high-specific power as well as high efficiency. The implementation of the proposed coil concept with inhomogeneous EC is discussed and demonstrated. The EC measurements on rod and coil samples are conducted for material characterization.