Abstract

High speed ships like the X-Craft, Littoral Combat Ship, and Joint High Speed Vessel are expected to require about 40 MW of propulsion power to achieve the required speed. Today, this power is typically provided through four mechanical drive water jets of about 10 MW each, operating at about 600-rpm. In the future, superconductor technology may enable the Navy to consider electric drive for this application. A notional design has been developed for high speed electric propulsion using four superconductor motors. Each motor would be approximately 1.7 m in diameter, 1.9 m in axial length and ~20,000 kg in weight – it can be built now by using the high-temperature superconductor (HTS) motor technology in development at American Superconductor (AMSC) since the early 1990s. This HTS motor technology has been demonstrated by the successful construction and testing of motors for industrial, utility and ship propulsion applications. The following examples validate the readiness of HTS motor technology for ship propulsion:

• 5 MW, 230-rpm sub-scale HTS marine propulsion motor already tested in 2004 at full torque and full power by the Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS) for the Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR).
• The current 36.5 MW, 120-rpm HTS prototype motor development program at AMSC, which is specified to be compatible with the DD(X) destroyer, has successfully passed its Detailed Design Review milestone in October 2004 with no discrepancies. This motor’s fabrication is on schedule for delivery to the Navy in fall-2006.

The experience with these systems has confirmed that HTS motors will be much smaller, lighter, less costly, more efficient, and inherently quieter than conventional technologies. These factors are vital considerations in designing the Navy’s future all electric warships. The 10 MW, 600-rpm HTS motors would be about the same frame size as the already tested 5 MW, 230-rpm motor.

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