http://nextbigfuture.disqus.com/enTue, 13 Jan 2009 12:16:07 -0000http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/01/365-megawatt-superconducting-motor.html#comment-5093993<p>Actually, I'm pretty damned impresssed. HTS ... when originally brought forth, was beset with problems where strong (not that strong) magnetic fields would suppress the superconducting effect. Not good for motors. So, it looks like the materials scientists have worked around that set of issues. The obvious way ... make it colder ... but then the advantages of the "HT" side would be lost.</p><p>I started out wanting to say that any cryogenic motor would be ... vulnerable ... on something so much in harm's way as a battleship. But ... when I consider the intricacies of a nuclear power plant, well ... a motor by comparison can't be anywhere near as full of critical components, and the navies of the world seem to deploy lots of nuke plants to keep their beautiful tubs chugging forward.</p><p>I imagine that the purposed design fit for such a motor on a ship ... is rather similar to the use of very large electric motors (and generators) on all modern locomotives: to transform power to torque independent of rotational speed ... efficiently ... and without hopelessly complicated transmission gearboxes.</p><p>Also, a kind of "silence" comes from the use of large brushless multiphase motor-drives: virtually no high frequency noise is induced in the shaft, and therefore to the vanes on the screw, and therefore to the water (which is a surprisingly good conductor of sound). Modern digitally controlled PCM working in the high kilohertz to megahertz region can keep a 6 phase stator's phases accurate in both flux and time to within 1% of the locked cosine phase function. Compared to any mechanical isolation system, the enormous energy capacity of the humble 'supercap' capacitor would serve to completely level the generated DC into a silky smooth energy stream.</p><p>So... I see great possibilities here.</p><p>GoatGuy</p>GoatGuyTue, 13 Jan 2009 12:16:07 -0000