Multiphase PM machine for More Electric Aircraft applications: Prototype for design validation

This paper presents the electromagnetic design of a reduced scale multiphase generator for More Electric Engine applications, where the machine is integrated inside the aircraft main gas turbine engine. Therefore, as for the reference full scale machine, the prototype is characterized by an annulus shape outer rotor structure and it is cooled by air flowing through the airgap. The stator winding is constituted by a six-phase single-layer non-overlapping fractional-slot concentrated windings, that satisfy the fault-tolerant requirements required by the aerospace application. In order to validate the designed machine, the paper reports the experimental results of the tests conducted on the prototype. In particular, the paper validates the torque constant at different speed and the possibility of using unbalanced current control.