Assessment of High-Speed Multi-Megawatt Electric Machines

Due to their inherent high power density, high-speed multi-megawatt electric machines are becoming increasingly more popular in many applications including industrial, petro-chemical, mining, and marine. In this paper, state-of-the-art high-speed multi-megawatt electric machines are reviewed. The power range, speed range, and specific power of different high-speed multi megawatt electric machine topologies, mainly non-cryogenic machines, are compared. The scaling laws of different machine parameters such as the electric machine rating, losses, and power density are examined. In addition, the special challenges for highspeed multi-megawatt electric machines are overviewed. This paper will facilitate the design of high-speed multi-megawatt electric machines and help the understanding of the differences between multi-megawatt level and kilowatt level electric machines.