Rotor Flexible Support Components Design of a High Temperature Superconducting Motor

A high-temperature superconducting (HTS) motor was designed, which employs the HTS wires in the rotor. To support the HTS magnet, the novel flexible support components are designed, and the design process is summarized as follows. First, the structure of flexible support components was designed, and the structural size and piece number of the leaf spring were obtained by means of theoretical calculation and test. Second, the structure of the whole rotor with its support components was conducted by the finite element method. The results show that the cold mass has a slight vibration in the radial direction and the resonance is avoided. Last, a full-scale simplified rotor low-temperature test platform was developed to verify the strength and the stiffness of the support. The low temperature test results show that the maximum radial displacement and the maximal strain of leaf spring under test condition are 0.54 mm and -459.7 με, which are far below the yield strength of the spring steel and satisfy of the design requirements of the HTS motor.