A Superconducting Vernier Motor for Electric Ship Propulsion

A megawatts (MW)-class direct-drive vernier motor for electric ship propulsion is proposed in this paper. The proposed vernier motor adopts the homopolar structure and utilizes the high-temperature superconducting wire for electrical excitation. The stator houses the superconducting field winding and the copper armature winding. The rotor consists of an iron core without excitation sources. Thus, no cryo-moving components are required. A dual-body Dewar for cooling the pancake high-temperature superconducting field winding is proposed. The motor performance is analyzed and evaluated using three-dimensional finite-element analysis. Both the brushless ac and brushless dc operation modes for the proposed motor are assessed and compared.