Optimal electrical drive configuration to use in a Do 128-6 aircraft taking into account the electromagnetic, mechanical and aerodynamic designs

This paper deals with the identification and analysis of an electric drive configuration at system level. In terms of efficiency and power density, the investigation is intended to enable a statement whether the ideal electric motor application is a direct drive or a combination with a gearbox in the drive gondola of a Do 128-6 aircraft. In this research, seven versions of electrical drive combinations are presented and examined based on analytical calculations and software simulations. First, the designs of permanent magnet motors (PM) with concentrated windings are analyzed with the FEM-based engineering tool ANSYS Maxwell 2D. A common 12-teeth/10-pole winding topology is compared to a 12-teeth/14-pole winding topology designed with flux barriers in the stator. After that, the gearbox is evaluated with GAP (a gearbox design program). Furthermore, the mechanical power is considered because it depends on the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. The results show that the geared drives are well suited for this application.