Electromagnetic/Thermal Design Procedure of an Aerospace Electric Propeller

Much attention is focused upon the integration of electric actuators in aerospace applications to accomplish many functions, including the propulsion one. Within this trend, this paper is aimed at the design, modeling, and optimization of a five-phase fractional-slot permanent-magnet synchronous motor to be integrated in an electrically propelled plane. Accounting for the fact that the design procedure concerns both electromagnetic and thermal features, an analytical formulation of the corresponding major design parameters is derived. Then, an electromagnetic/thermal finite-element analysis (FEA)-based investigation of the initial concept has led to an average temperature rise lower than the aerospace application limit one. An optimization of the initial design is achieved using a FEA-based iterative procedure that yields a 22.5% decrease of the stack length, resulting in a weight reduction of 22.6%.