Comparison Of Methods For Evaluating Mechanical Stress In The Rotor Of High-Speed Machines

High-speed rotating electrical machines are interesting solutions to achieve high-power density, especially in transportation industry. Such machines are considered as high-speed ones when the mechanical aspects like stress and vibrations cannot anymore be neglected during their sizing. Machine topologies having a solid rotor (homopolar, reluctance and asynchronous) are suited to high speed operation. Permanent magnet machines can also operate at high-speed if they are properly sized. This paper proposes analytical evaluation of the stresses in the rotor caused by the centrifugal effects in order to determine the speed limit, ensuring a mechanical sizing of the rotating parts of both solid rotor and permanent magnet machines which will operate in their elastic regime. Comparisons of the developed models with simulations using finite element method as well as retro-engineering on industrial applications serve to validate and analyze the analytical findings.
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