Fabrication of HTS dc Bias Coil for 35 kV/90 MVA SFCL

Abstract---For a saturated iron core fault current limiter, superconductor is the only suitable material to make the dc bias coil, especially when the device is used in a high voltage power grid. Commonly, superconducting wires are used to wind the dc bias coil Since the performance of the wires changes greatly under magnetic fields, the calculation of the field spatial distraction is essential to the optimization of the superconducting magnet. A superconducting coil with 141000 ampere-turns magnetizing capacity made of 17600 meters of BSCCO 2223 HTS tapes was fabricated. This coil was built for a 35 kV/90 MVA saturated iron-core fault current limiter. Computer simulations on magnetic field distribution were carried out to optimize the structural design, and experiments were done to verify the performance of the coil The configuration and the key parameters of the coil will be reported in this paper.     

Improvement on current limiting performance of current limitingdevices with damping coils

An improved model of the current limiting devices such as the high-Tc superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) and the reactor have been developed. The high-Tc SFCL mainly consists of the primary copper coil, the secondary high-Tc superconducting rings, and the damping coils, which are magnetically coupled through a three-legged magnetic core. Because a portion of the magnetic flux above the saturation point generated by the fault current is cancelled by the damping coil, thereby the magnetic core is prevented from getting into the saturated state. The limiting current level and the saturation of the core could be controlled by the air-gap length of the central leg with the damping coil. A new design of the SFCL is found to increase the effective impedance by about 60 to 70%, compared to the SFCL design without the damping coils     

Operational characteristics of a flux-lock-type high-T/sub c/ superconducting fault current limiter with a tap changer

The authors investigate the operational characteristics of a flux-lock-type high-T/sub c/ superconducting (HTSC) fault current limiter (SFCL) with a tap changer which could adjust the number of turns of the third winding. In the case of conventional flux-lock-type SFCL, the phase adjusting capacitor is connected in series with magnetic field coil to adjust the magnetic field applied to the HTSC element in phase with the current flowing through the HTSC element during a fault time. However, the current flowing at the third winding, which is connected with magnetic field coil, affects the fault current limiting characteristics. To analyze the influence of current flowing at the third winding on the fault current limiting characteristics, the fault current limiting characteristics of the flux-lock type SFCL, whose inductance of coil 3 could be adjustable through a tap changer, are investigated through the experiments and the computer-aided simulations. The relation of line currents flowing into the flux-lock-type SFCL during a fault time and numbers of turns of a tap changer is drawn.     

Study of Superconducting Fault Current Limiter Using Vacuum Interrupter Driven by Electromagnetic Repulsion Force for Commutating Switch

Using a high-temperature superconductor, we constructed and tested a model superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL). The superconductor and the vacuum interrupter as the commutation switch were connected in parallel using a bypass coil. When the fault current flows in this equipment, the superconductor is quenched and the current is transferred to the parallel coil because of the voltage drop in the superconductor. This large current in the parallel coil actuates the magnetic repulsion mechanism of the vacuum interrupter. Due to the opening of the vacuum interrupter, the current in the superconductor is broken. By using this equipment, the current flow time in the superconductor can be easily minimized. On the other hand, the fault current is also easily limited by large reactance of the parallel coil     

Hard Magnetic Dots for Flux Bias of DC SQUIDs

In this paper, we demonstrate that perpendicularly magnetized sub- and micrometer-sized magnetic dots, with a high coercivity and nearly complete remanence, can be used to provide the flux bias for dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). The radius of a submicrometer Co–Pd magnetic dot has been optimized with respect to the surrounding superconducting circuitry to generate the phase shift of approximately$pi/2$in it. In this way, it is possible to bias a dc SQUID to the steepest part of its voltage-flux characteristic without using an additional coil and current source. Furthermore, it has been shown that the flux bias can also be achieved using a micrometer-sized Co–Pd dot, upon saturation, by placing a dc SQUID on top of the dot. Given that the underlying principles of flux biasing do not require any particular superconducting pairing scheme (s- or d-wave), these hybrid superconductor/ferromagnet structures can be used as to design a dc SQUID with a complete flux self-biasing.     

Superconducting magnet system containing Bi-2212/Ag Coil Generates 21.8 T at 1.8K

We fabricated a Bi-2212/Ag double stacked pancake coil of 13 mmØ) in inner bore and of 46.5 mmØ in outer diameter, by using Bi-2212/Ag tapes prepared by the combination of continuous dip-coating process and melt-solidification technique. This small superconducting magnet was used as an insert magnet of a conventional superconducting magnet system and tested at saturated superfluid helium temperature (～ 1.8K) in various bias fields. The generated field of Bi2212/Ag coil was 0.9 T, with I_c of 310 A(criterion 10^-13Ω·m), in the bias field of 20.9 T. Thus, this superconducting magnet system achieved generation of magnetic field of 21.8 T in the full superconducting state.     

Applications of DC Breakers and Concepts for Superconducting Fault-Current Limiter for a DC Distribution Network

Many alternative energy power generation systems create dc electricity. Also, many devices consume dc converted from ac. Therefore, it may be possible to reduce conversion losses and $hbox{CO}_{2}$ emissions by adopting dc distribution. We assume that superconducting cables will be used for dc distribution because their electrical resistance is almost zero. However, if a superconducting cable is adopted, it is of great concern that if an excessive current flows because of, for instance, a short circuit, then there is a possibility that this current cannot be interrupted by a circuit breaker alone. We propose that the fault current be limited by a superconducting fault-current limiter (SFCL) and that this limited current is then interrupted by a dc circuit breaker. In this paper, we have separately investigated the SFCL and dc breaker and their use in combination.      

Dynamics Modeling of Fast Transformer Type Fault Current Limiter Loaded With HTSC

Theoretical model of the fast fault current limiter based on an air core transformer, the secondary winding of which is loaded with high-T_c superconductor (HTSC) sample, has been analyzed. The fault current limiter was designed to protect a strong magnetic field pulse generation system. Transformer parameters and HTSC sample resistance in the normal state have been chosen to provide the fault current limitation efficiency. The current limiting dynamics was investigated by solving nonlinear system of equations. A detailed explanation of the results is presented. It is shown that application of the fault current limiter allows us to increase the initial reservoir capacitor voltage of the protected system up to 2.6 times.     

Kurzschlussstrom-Begrenzung mittels Bi2212-Hochtemperatur-Supraleitern — Stand der Forschung

Limiting fault currents by means of superconducting current limiters has been topic of intensive international research for many years. Superconducting current limiters make use of the super-conducter’s transition from superconducting to normal conducting state, and therefore it works like a nonlinear resistance. Due to its intrinsic physical proterties the superconducting current limiter comes close to an ideal limiter.     

Quench Protection System for the Superconducting Coil of the KSTAR Tokamak

This paper presents two-stage high-power mechanical-thyristor switches developed as 40-kA direct current (dc) circuit breakers for the superconducting coil energy dump system of Korea superconducting Tokamak advanced research (KSTAR). An advanced switching system used in the quench protection should allow multishot mode of operation without maintenance and long lifetime with arcless dc current commutation. The system is designed to combine the advantages of the both mechanical and solid-state power switches. The mechanical stage is to conduct dc current for normal superconducting coil operation and the thyristor stage is to provide fast arcless dc current interruption for quench protection (QP). Compared with the all solid-state switches and vacuum interrupters of equal capabilities the proposed switch is much cheaper than the dc breakers and has lower power dissipation in current conducting state "Kuchinski in Proc. Power Ele., 899-903, 1995;" "Benfatto IEEE Power Del., Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 1372-1376, Oct. 1998." Also, it is much faster than the vacuum interrupters. The system is designed to break 40-kA dc current within 200 ms. Also, KSTAR device, a configuration of the energy dump system and coil power supplies are presented     

Improved controller for power conditioner using high-temperature superconducting magnetic energy storage (HTS-SMES)

One of the most important functions in a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system when used for power conditioning, is the ability to charge the super-conducting coil as fast as possible to ensure that it is ready when it is next required. This paper describes a novel controller for a high-temperature SMES (HTS-SMES) that can ensure: 1) fast return of energy to the superconducting coil under constant-current mode and 2) a constant and sinusoidal input supply current irrespective of the varying load demand with and without harmonics. In the new HTS-SMES proposed, two hysteresis controllers are used, one to control the magnitude, phase and the waveform of the ac supply current, and the other is to control a dc chopper to regulate the SMES coil current. The first hysteresis controller ensures that as far as the power utility is concerned, the load appears to the utility system as a constant sinusoidal load with unity power factor irrespective whether the load is distorted or varying in nature. The second hysteresis controller has been designed to regulate the energy in and out of the superconducting coil. A special feature of this controller is its ability to smoothly charge the superconducting coil using constant current charging so that it can be ready for the next discharging operation as soon as possible. Analysis of the circuit operation under hysteresis control is presented in details. Simulation and experimental results are presented demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed power conditioning system.     

Force on current coils moving over a conducting sheet with application to magnetic levitation

The use of Fourier-transform techniques provides exact integral expressions for the forces on polygonal dc current coils moving over a conducting sheet. These expressions are applied to investigate magnetic levitation of proposed high-speed transportation. Extensive numerical data have been analyzed to determine the performance dependence of the system parameters such as velocity, coil shape, array configuration, clearance, and track thickness, conductivity and permeability. In terms of potential applications, a comparison between the superconducting repulsive and ferromagnetic attractive systems is given.     

Magnetic-shield-type fault current limiter equivalent circuit

In order to investigate how a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) can enhance the performance of a power system, an accurate circuit model of the device needs to be introduced in power system simulators. In this paper, we present a finite-element numerical model to calculate the time evolution of the voltage across a magnetic-shield-type SFCL, when it is connected to an external circuit. The calculation of the voltage is carried out by using the energy conservation law, and requires the calculation, at any instant, of the current density distribution inside the superconducting tube and magnetization distribution inside the ferromagnetic core of the device. These distributions are determined by means of two coupled equivalent electric and magnetic circuits, whose topology and components are obtained through the spatial integration of quasi-static form of Maxwell equations. Comparisons between numerical and experimental results are shown.     

Theoretical Estimation of Electromagnetic Loss From the Movement of Superconducting Coil in the W7-X Stellarator

We investigated the dissipation, occurring when a superconducting coil experiences a transient in the magnetic field generated by other coil. Such mechanism could be relevant during energizing the main magnetic field in the W7-X machine, when the mutual forces between superconducting coils could lead to their deformations or movements. Significant paths for current loops have been identified, and the formulas allowing the estimation of dissipated heat derived. All contributions to the heat generation due to eddy currents, coupling and hysteresis losses could be included into the calculations. Finite element simulations have been used to determine the typical transient of magnetic field that could be expected inside the W7-X coil due to mechanical movement. We found that one can foresee magnetic field changes of about 20 mT occurring during 40 milliseconds. Applying the formulas derived for transient loss for the case of such field change, the maximum dissipation connected with one event was estimated to be less than 0.16$ mJ/cm^3$, which is tolerable for the magnet design of W7-X.     

Analysis of a passive superconducting fault current limiter

An analysis was carried out to predict the forced response of the equivalent circuit of an innovative superconducting fault current limiter (FCL). The FCL employs two superconducting coils with differing critical currents wound noninductively. The analysis shows that to reduce the voltage drop under normal operating conditions, the coupling coefficient should be kept fairly high (k>0.90). For a given coil configuration (ωL¯=constant), the limiting capability of the device increases with the resistance R of the trigger coil up to a certain value of R, then further increase in R changes very little the limiting capability of the FCL. However, further increase in R can reduce the heat generation rate in the device which will help alleviate the problem of relatively long recovery time. The fault current predicted from estimated values of R compares fairly well with results of an experiment reported in the literature. The discrepancy between the predicted and measured current is due mainly to the uncertainty in the estimated resistance R, because both the purity of Cu and the percentage of Cu in CuNi are not known. By varying the ratio of NbTi-Cu-CuNi in the matrix, the purity of Cu, and the percentage of Cu in CuNi various values of R, can be achieved, which should help to alleviate the problem of excessive Joule heating and recovery time     

New design concept of the magnet system generating the high pulsed field in combination with the bias field of the superconducting magnet

A new design concept of the axisymmetric magnet system generating the very high pulsed magnetic field which is superimposed on the bias magnetic field of the superconducting magnet is presented. The pulsed magnet consists of two coaxial coils which are wound in opposite directions. The geometry of both pulsed coils, i.e. the working (inner) one and the compensating (outer) one is designed in such a way that the mutual coupling between the small pulsed magnet and the outer superconducting magnet is practically zero. This configuration prevents the rise of the high induced voltage on the current leads of the superconducting magnet when the pulsed magnet is being energised, hence resulting naturally in protection of the system (superconducting magnet and the current source) against possible damage. Further, it is predicted that the stray field of the pulsed magnet, which gives rise e.g. to the eddy currents in the winding of the superconducting magnet, is considerably decreased. The simple theory enabling the design of the geometry of the compensating pulsed coil is derived. The advantages of this new concept are demonstrated on the results of the theoretical analysis using, as an example, one of the pulsed coils that were designed and fabricated in the Clarendon Laboratory, in connection with the Oxford Instrument superconducting magnet (Clarendon hybrid outer) which can generate a steady magnetic field up to 10 T in a room temperature working space with a diameter of 240 mm.     

Limitation of DC currents by YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta//-Au superconducting films

The limitation of dc fault currents is one of the issues for the development of dc networks or links. This paper shows for the first time the high potential of YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta//-Au bilayers for the design of dc current limiters. Such devices are based on the transition into the normal state of the superconducting YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta// films above a current I/sup */>I/sub c/, where I/sub c/ is the critical current at the onset of dissipation. The study of the transition under current pulses shows that a thermally driven transition into the normal state can occur after a delay t/sub trans/. This duration is defined by the amplitude of the current pulse. For I/sup *//spl ap/3I/sub c/, this delay is less than 10 /spl mu/s. The abrupt transition into the normal state allows an efficient current limitation. A recovery of the superconducting state can also occur under current. This property can be extremely interesting for autonomous operation of a current limiter in an electrical network in case of transient over-currents coming from the starting of high-power devices.     

交变外场下双结超导量子干涉器件的讨论

本文在a.c.Josephson结方程和直流超导量子干涉器件(d.c.SQUID)原理的基础上,讨论了在外加交流电场下,双结超导量子干涉器件环路的输出电流与待测磁通量的关系,得到了输出电流和待测磁通量关于时间的微分方程。并基于以上微分方程,提出了通过测定输出电流与时间的关系从而测量随时间发生微小变化的磁通量的构想。     

基于超导等安匝线圈的柔性直流电流传感器校准系统研究

直流大电流测量设备的准确性对企业产品质量、能耗控制等诸多方面有着重要影响。由于对现有直流大电流测量设备开展计量校准工作时存在一些困难,本文提出采用超导等安匝线圈代替传统等安匝线圈制作校准系统,对用于测量大电流的柔性直流电流传感器进行计量校准,以实现降低系统中标准直流大电流源技术指标要求的目标。     

Performance of an inductive fault current limiter employing BSCCOsuperconducting cylinders

Inductive fault current limiters operating at high levels of short-circuit currents are plagued by appearance of overheated thermal domains in active superconducting elements. Excessive growth of thermal domains may lead to a fatal mechanical destruction of the superconducting element during a fault event. It has been determined that employment of superconductors with gradual dissipation onset controlled by flux relaxation processes can efficiently prevent local overheating. Operation of such elements, fabricated by melt cast technique, has been investigated experimentally in a small-scale open-core model of an inductive fault current limiter. The results of the experiments demonstrate the feasibility of application of superconducting cylinders having properties dominated by flux relaxation processes in inductive current limiters. The most important parameter of a superconducting element designated to operate in such devices is the rate of flux relaxation and its dependence on ac current amplitude. It has been found that ac losses associated with flux relaxation in the investigated cylinders allow for a reliable limiter operation at the nominal current level. Projection of the parameters of the investigated small-scale model to the full-scale device has been performed using the concept of physical modeling. The obtained results indicate that it is possible to build a full-scale device based on flux creep dissipation mechanisms for distribution networks