Comparative study of copper and aluminium conductors - Future cost effective PM machines

This paper investigates the use of aluminium (Al) as an alternative to the more common copper (Cu) conductors used in the construction of future cost effective PM machines. The use of Al conductors in the context of PM machine design has not been widely explored or reported in the literature. The main focus of this research has been placed on the power loss generated at ac operation and associated thermal and heat transfer phenomena, which are essential to understand when a compact and efficient machine design utilising Al conductors is considered.