Florian Birnkammer
Rolls-Royce Electrical,
Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG

Abstract

The electrification of aircraft is playing a significant role in reducing the aviation industry’s environmental footprint. The industry presents specific challenges to design engineers due to the design constraints. Developing an electric propulsion system that meets the desired efficiency and power-to-weight ratio requires efficient tools and workflows to cover all design aspects and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.
In an agile environment, quick response from the design engineering team to volatile requirements is crucial. Since the electromagnetic design is usually laying the foundation for other disciplines to build upon, a fully parameterized model stripped down to a low as reasonably possible simulation time is used to explore the available design space for new sets of requirements and provide appropriate design variants on short notice. Assessing relevant key figures on the way, engineers directly have the data on hand required to make informed decisions, thus fostering agile electrical machine development for time-critical project demands.