Assessment of Ultra-High-Speed motors potential for electric propulsion

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Electric propulsion has driven the development of more power-dense electric motor. However, the power density of direct-drive motor, directly coupled with tangential velocity, is limited by the area available behind the propeller. An approach to radically increasing power density is to use ultra-high-speed motors with a gearbox to decouple rotational speeds and achieve high tangential speeds. The project proposed here aims at evaluating the benefits of geared ultra-high-speed motors for electric propulsion. The first step is to carry iterative destructive testing of permanent rotor samples to understand and surpass the current tangential speed limits. The second step is to integrate the results in a multidisciplinary analysis and optimization tool to find the configuration that better exploit this gain in tangential speed to maximize power density and efficiency. The last step is to build and test an ultra-high-speed motor to demonstrate ultra-high tangential speed operation and validate the losses prediction at these frequencies. This project is the first step towards developing new technologies to overcome current power density limits that would give this project Canadian partners a competitive advantage over competitors in the emerging electric-VTOL market.