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 high-speed 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.