Review of High-Power-Density and Fault-Tolerant Design of Propulsion Motors for Electric Aircraft

Abstract

As the electrification process of aircrafts continues to advance, the propulsion motor system, as its core component, has received more attention and research. This paper summarizes and analyzes the development status, research focus and typical cases in this field in recent years. Firstly, it analyzes the basic structure and principle of five common motors, summarizes the current status of their respective applications in electric aircrafts, and compares them to determine the most suitable type of motor for use as a propulsion motor, focusing on various performance indexes. Then, the optimized design of propulsion motors is generally divided into two categories, namely high power density and fault tolerance. Starting from the basic relationship equation of motor design, the basic method to improve the power density of motors is pointed out; at the same time, according to the basic principles and objectives of the fault tolerance of motors, the fault tolerance design is divided into two aspects, namely the redundant design and the design to improve the fault tolerance capability. Finally, this paper summarizes the current development status of the propulsion motor system and the existing problems and points out the main development direction of this field in the future, so as to provide reference for the further development of the electric propulsion system of aircraft.

Keywords

• electric propulsion system
• propulsion motor
• power density
• fault-tolerant design