Development of a 15 kW Motor With a Fixed YBCO Superconducting Field Winding

We developed a 15 kW synchronous motor with a fixed superconducting field winding. It was 8-pole type. Each field coil was a racetrack-shaped single pancake wound with a YBCO superconducting tape. It was fabricated by IBAD-PLD method and 10 mm in width. The rotating armature was composed of a copper winding and an iron core. The field coils were conduction-cooled down to 20 to 30 K through a copper pipe attached to the copper coil flange, in which helium gas was forced-flowed. The completed motor was first tested in the Suzuka factory of Japan motor and Generator Co. Ltd. before shipping as usual. Then it was moved to the test site of the Nagasaki shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Ltd. and installed into a ship propulsion test system, which had a propeller with a diameter of 0.5 m. We verified the quite stable underwater operation and the output power of 15 kW-360 rpm as designed.