Designing an Airgap Armature of a Large Superconducting Generator for Electromagnetic and Thermal Loads

Efforts are underway to develop superconducting generators for commercial power operation. These machines typically will have large air gap armatures, departing from conventional generator experience. The mechanical design of such an armature to withstand operational loads is, therefore, a new area. This paper describes work that has been done to determine the stresses and deflections in an advanced spiral pancake armature for a 300 MVA superconducting generator. Both electromagnetic forces and thermal loads have been analyzed using two-dimensional elasticity theory and finite element analysis.