A thermal-electromagnetic coupled motor design flow for electric aircraft propeller drive application

The paper presents a design flow of permanent magnet synchronous machine used for ultra light aircraft propeller drive. The operation profile is characterized by varying power requirement and varying cooling condition. Losses and transient temperature rise are investigated in order to improve the motor's power density. Thermal circuit, lumped thermal network and CFD model are constructed to analyze thermal phenomena inside the motor in each design phase. An improved concentrate winding five phase motor with auxiliary teeth is designed using the proposed thermal coupled design flow. The design process integrates temperature and electromagnetic field analysis which facilitates motor design for electric aircraft propeller drive application.