A Northrop Grumman Corporation led team has been selected by the Naval Sea Systems Command(NAVSEA) to begin a design of a 40-megawatt (MW) high-temperature superconductor (HTS) generator intended to provide a smaller, lighter and quieter main power source for future surface combatants.
Under this initial nine-month contract, Northrop Grumman Marine
Systems, teamed with American Superconductor Corporation, will complete a concept design and explore different configurations ofthe HTS generator while assessing the impact on generator
characteristics associated with voltage, phase-count, pole-count and
cooling selection. The Navy has an option to exercise an additional
3-year contract worth $3.9 million to continue the trade studies that
will help evaluate differences from conventional generator designs
while validating weight, size, acoustic performance and cost for a
40-MW high-temperature superconductor generator.
As the program lead, Northrop Grumman will provide trade
studies, generator concept design, main turbine generator concept
design, systems engineering, systems modeling and integration tasks
with the work performed at the company's Marine Systems facility in
Sunnyvale, Calif.
American Superconductor based in Westborough, Mass., will
provide trade studies, determine the electromagnetic parameters for the
generator concept design, study superconducting materials, and provide
the rotor, exciter and cryogenic systems concept design for the
generator.