First experience with the new Coupling Loss Induced Quench system

New-generation high-field superconducting magnets pose a challenge relating to the protection of the coil winding pack in the case of a quench. The high stored energy per unit volume calls for a very efficient quench detection and fast quench propagation in order to avoid damage due to overheating.A new protection system called Coupling-Loss Induced Quench (CLIQ) was recently developed and tested at CERN. This method provokes a fast change in the magnet transport current by means of a capacitive discharge. The resulting change in the local magnetic field induces inter-filament and inter-strand coupling losses which heat up the superconductor and eventually initiate a quench in a large fraction of the coil winding pack.The method is extensively tested on a Nb–Ti single-wire test solenoid magnet in the CERN Cryogenic Laboratory in order to assess its performance, optimize its operating parameters, and study new electrical configurations. Each parameter is thoroughly analyzed and its impact on the quench efficiency highlighted.Furthermore, an alternative method is also considered, based on a CLIQ discharge through a resistive coil magnetically coupled with the solenoid but external to it. Due to the strong coupling between the external coil and the magnet, the oscillating current in the external coil changes the magnetic field in the solenoid strands and thus generates coupling losses in the strands. Although for a given charging voltage this configuration usually yields poorer quench performance than a standard CLIQ discharge, it has the advantage of being electrically insulated from the solenoid coil, and thus it can work with much higher voltage.     

Influence of losses on the stability of a high current density superconducting magnet winding during the energy removal process

The influence of losses on the stability of a high current density, superconducting, magnet winding during energy removal, are presented. The magnet is wound from intrinsically stable superconductors. The possibility of magnet quench due to losses during the energy removal is demonstrated. Under certain conditions during the energy removal process, the quench magnetic field level is independent of the magnetic field decay velocity.     

Superconducting magnet for K-500 cyclotron at VECC, Kolkata

K-500 superconducting cyclotron is in the advanced stage of commissioning at VECC, Kolkata. Superconducting magnet is one of the major and critical component of the cyclotron. It has been successfully fabricated, installed, cooled down to 4.2 K by interfacing with LHe plant and energized to its rated current on 30th April, 2005 producing magnetic field of 4.8 T at median plane of cyclotron. The superconducting magnet (stored energy of 22MJ) consists of two coils (α and β), which were wound on a sophisticated coil winding machine set-up at VECC. The superconducting cable used for winding the coils is multi filamentary composite superconducting wire (1.29 mm diameter) having 500 filaments of 40 μm diameter Nb-Ti in copper matrix which is embedded in OFHC grade copper channel (2.794 mm × 4.978 mm) for cryogenic stability. The basic structure of coil consists of layer type helical winding on a SS bobbin of 1475 mm ID × 1930 mm OD × 1170 mm height. The bobbin was afterwards closed by SS sheet to form the LHe chamber. The total weight of the coil with bobbin was about 6 tonne and the total length of the superconducting cable wound was about 35 km. Winding was done at very high tension (2000 PSI) and close tolerance to restrict the movement of conductor and coil during energization. After coil winding, all four coils (two each on upper and lower half of median plane of cyclotron) were banded by aluminium strip (2.7 mm × 5 mm) at higher tension (20,000 PSI) to give more compressive force after cool down to 4.2 K for restricting the movement of coil while energizing and thereby eliminating the chances of quench during ramping of current.After completion of coil winding by October, 2003, cryostat assembly was taken up in house. The assembly of cryostat (13 tonne) with support links (9 Nos.) refrigeration port, instrumentation port, helium vapour cooled current loads, etc. was completed by June, 2004. Meanwhile assembly of magnet frame was taken up and the cryostat was positioned in the magnet frame with proper alignment by August, 2004. After installation of cryostat on magnet, the cryostat was connected to the helium refrigerator/liquefier, having refrigeration capacity of 200 W and 100 l/h in liquefier mode with LN2 pre-cooling. The cryogenic delivery system supplying the liquid helium and liquid nitrogen to the superconducting magnet was successfully commissioned in November, 2004. The cool down of the cryostat to 10 K took around 8 days following which the LHe was filled in the cryostat (300 l) on 15th January, 2005. Subsequently the superconducting coils (α and β) were energized by two DC current regulated power supplies (20 V, 1000 A, 10 ppm stability) with slow and fast dump resistors connected externally across the superconducting coils for protection of coils at the time of power failure and quench.The paper describes the intricacies involved in coil winding, winding set-up, assembly of cryostat, cooling down the superconducting coils, filling by LHe and energization to rated current. The paper also highlights the operating experience of superconducting magnet and related test results.     

Quenching of superconducting coils

Although the speed of propagation of the boundary between normal and superconducting regions in a wire falls with decreasing current, different, and even opposite behaviour can be observed in a coil during a quench. It is suggested that this is due to the changing field causing hysterestic heating of the conductor.     

AC Loss Evaluation of MgB2 Superconducting Windings Located in a Stator Core Slot with a Finite-Element Method

AC losses in stator windings of fully superconducting motors with an MgB₂ wire are numerically evaluated by means of a finite-element method using edge elements for a self-magnetic field. The physical properties of the MgB₂ wire for numerical calculations are obtained from the corresponding experiments with an existing wire. It is assumed that the voltage?Ccurrent characteristics of the MgB₂ wire are given by Bean??s critical-state model, in which the critical current density is independent of the local magnetic field. The influences of core slot size and turn number of windings on the AC losses are discussed quantitatively toward the optimum design of the stator winding with the MgB₂ wire.     

Quench detection method without a central voltage tap by calculating active power

In this paper, we present an electric quench detection method without a central voltage tap which may cause the short-circuit of the lead-wires from the voltage taps in the quench detection of a large AC superconducting coil. In this method, an inductive voltage detection coil is used instead of the central voltage tap. The inductive voltage detection coil is electrically insulated from a superconducting coil and therefore the lead-wires do not break down. Through the quench detection tests for a Bi-2223/Ag HTS coil, we show the feasibility of the proposed method for detecting the quench of the large AC superconducting coil.     

Quench detection system of the EURATOM coil for the Large Coil Task

A special quench detection system has been developed for the EURATOM Large Coil Task (LCT) coil. The system is based on a bridge circuit which uses a special ‘two in hand’ winding technique for the pancakes of the EURATOM LCT coil. The electronic circuit was designed in a fail safe way to prevent failure of the quench detector due to failure of one of its components. A method for quick balancing of the quench detection system in a large toroidal magnet system was applied. The quench detection system worked very reliably during the experimental phase of the LCT and was within the quench detection level setting of 50 mV, i.e. the system was not sensitive to poloidal field transients at or below this level. Non-electrical methods for quench detection were also investigated.     

Development of a 7 T Experiment System for Superconducting Switch Test

A 7 T experiment system, which was designed for a MRI superconducting switch test, has been developed at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of China. The system mainly consists of a 7 T background superconducting coil, two pairs of 800 A vapor cooled current leads, a data acquisition system and more. The NbTi superconducting coil, with an operating current of 376 A, has a central field of 7 T and clear bore of 80 mm. The no-impregnation technique was adopted to fabricate this coil. The coil reached 96% of its short sample performance after three times quench. The system detailed experiments are presented in this paper.     

New method of selecting the optimum geometrical parameters in the design of superconducting solenoids

A new method of selecting the optimum geometrical parameters in the design of superconducting solenoids has been proposed. The volume of superconducting winding can be much reduced and the homogeneity of the magnetic field is improved. A design example has shown that the volume of superconducting winding was reduced by 29% in comparison with the volume minimized coil with a rectangular winding cross-section.     

Proposal of DC shield reactor type superconducting fault current limiter

Saturated DC reactor type superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) had been proposed two years ago. It was classified to rectifier type SFCL. The changing inductance value with the operating mode has superior characteristics to reduce voltage sag during step increase of the load current. But it has the disadvantage of its weight. In this paper, rectifier type SFCL with shielded reactor has been proposed. The reactor which has superconducting ring or tube inside its winding is substituted to the DC link of the rectifier. The configuration looks like an air core transformer with secondary short winding. When the current through the bulk shield-ring reaches to a certain level, the flux penetrates to the shield body and finite impedance appears in the primary winding. In other words, when the surface flux density exceeds its critical flux density, the flux penetrates into the bulk superconductor, and increases equivalent inductance. The equivalent transient resistance of the shield was represented as a function of exponential of the time. Using this equivalent transient resistance, the transient impedance was expressed. The transient wave analysis using EMTDC (electro-magnetic transients in DC systems) has been described. Simulated waveforms are shown considering the source inductance, the leakage inductance, the coupling coefficient and the forward voltage drop of the semiconductor. And voltage sag was also investigated with 50% step load increase.Preliminary design was also performed. The coil size and number of turns are designed to obtain adequate inductance for the current limitation, and the central magnetic field of the coils are calculated. There is optimal aspect ratio to minimize the magnetic field with restriction in outer diameter of the coil.     

Quench back in thin superconducting solenoid magnets

Superconducting magnets with well coupled, low resistance, secondary circuits have been observed to become fully normal faster than quench propagation in the coil would permit. This process is referred to as ‘quench back’. Quench back observed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) was caused by heating the secondary circuit from the current induced from the primary circuit as normal region in the superconducting coil propagated. This paper develops the theory for thermal quench back in thin solenoid magnets and compares this theory with measurements made in two one-meter diameter superconducting solenoid magnets.     

A fast-acting superconducting switch for protection of superconducting coils in the persistent current mode

Superconducting switches which are normally used as shorting switches to operate superconducting coils in the persistent current mode are unsuitable for field energy removal from a coil in case of quenching by a parallel resistor because of the low resistance in the non-superconducting state. Moreover these switches have a long turn-off time compared with the characteristic transient time from the superconducting to normal state of high current density coils.The superconducting switch described in this paper permits switch off of current from 20–90 A within a few milliseconds with a normal resistance of about 200 Ω. The switch is activated inductively by a special winding configuration.     

Design and operation of a protection system for transformers with superconducting windings

Power transformers with superconducting windings need a protection system to prevent damage to the low-loss superconducting winding by an abnormally high current. The generally accepted protection technique which uses auxiliary coils has been analysed using a network representation. The current distribution between main and auxiliary coil is expressed in terms of geometrical parameters. Experimental data on current transfer and main coil recovery in a test transformer are presented and a method of obtaining a very low auxiliary coil current is suggested.     

Quench current improvement through shape modification of racetrack coil

Superconducting racetrack coils have different shapes from those of ordinary solenoid coils which have the same curvature along the windings. So they have different or worse performance from the viewpoint of quench characteristics due to the different structures. Racetrack coils also have round curvatures along their end portions; however, the main difference of their structures from solenoid coils exists in the straight portions. It is considered that the worse performance is due to the straight portions. In the round portions, there exists strong continuous constraint along the windings against the movement toward the perpendicular direction during coil excitation. On the contrary, in the straight portions, there is almost no constraining. As a result, especially in the case of dry magnet, they show even worse characteristics than solenoid counterparts.For the compensation of this worse performance, we proposed one idea to improve quench characteristics of racetrack coils. We manufactured one racetrack coil with an ordinary shape and the other with the proposed idea. By experiments we made sure that the proposed one had a higher quench current. Moreover, after we had made an application of the proposed idea to the four field coils of an actual 30 kVA superconducting generator, we could get very good output voltage and current waveforms.     

Validation of a novel fiber optic strain gauge in a cryogenic and high magnetic field environment

We report on the first operation of an easy to use low cost novel fiber optic strain gauge (FOSG) in cryogenic and magnetic field environments. The FOSGs were mounted on a superconducting coil and resin impregnated. The gauges detected resin shrinkage upon curing. On cooldown, the FOSG monitored the thermal contraction strains of the coil and the electromagnetic strain during energization. The coil was deliberately quenched, in excess of 175 times, and again the FOSG detected the quenches and measured the thermal expansion-induced strains and subsequent re-cooling of the coil after a quench. Agreement with FEA predictions was very good.     

Alternating field losses in superconducting wires carrying dc transport currents: Part 1 single core conductors

The influence of dc transport currents on alternating-field hysteresis loss was investigated for a single core superconducting wire. The configuration of the sample coil simulates a tight solenoidal winding of superconducting magnets, and the field is a small transverse alternating field applied on top of a large dc bias. The losses were determined as a function of transport current and external field from simultaneous measurements of the magnetization and the dynamic resistance. The results were compared with calculations based on a slab model. When the parameter of the slab-equivalent of an array of superconducting wires is chosen properly, the calculations explain the observed results quite well.     

Experimental and theoretical investigation of mechanical disturbances in epoxy-impregnated superconducting coils. 2. Shear-stress-induced epoxy fracture as the principal source of premature quenches and training theoretical analysis

An epoxy-impregnated superconducting winding may be considered structurally as a unidirectional composite consisting of superconducting wires embedded in a matrix of epoxy resin. The epoxy, because of its low strength and brittleness at low temperatures, is susceptible to brittle fracture which occurs under stresses induced initially during the cooldown (by differential thermal contractions of epoxy and metal) and subsequently during the magnet charge-up (by the Lorentz forces). Various modes of matrix failure are discussed and analysed. For the composite winding represented by four principal characteristics - geometry; constituent material properties; winding boundary conditions; and microcracks which become stress concentration sites for the initiation of further cracking. It is demonstrated that the transverse shear stresses induced by Lorentz forces in windings with cylindrical symmetry are principally responsible for premature magnet quenches. It is further demonstrated that to minimize shear stresses and thus prevent epoxy fracture in the winding, the whole winding body must not be restrained by the coil form and must be free to take its natural shape as the magnet is energized. This unrestrained winding support design is called the floating coil concept. The conclusions of the analysis agree both qualitatively and quantitatively with experimental results reported in the next two parts of this work.     

A cooling concept for improved field winding performance in large superconducting ac generators

An analytical study of a flow circuit for large superconducting generator rotors is presented. The flow circuit provides regulation of the level of liquid in the rotor externally by adjusting the helium supply pressure. It also protects the vapour cooled structural members of the rotor from overcooling during transient periods of operation. Furthermore, it is capable of reducing the winding temperature below 4.2 K thereby enhancing the superconductor's performance. For example, a large generator rotor with NbTi superconducting field winding experiences approximately a 50% increase in its critical current density compared to that at 4.2 K.     

Investigation of current distribution conditions in multiwire superconducting cables under the influence of self-magnetic field

The current distribution in a multi-wire round cable subjected to self-magnetic field is considered in this paper. A theoretical analysis of the current distribution process was made. The influence of layer parameters on the current distribution between the layers was determined. The theoretical analysis showed that it was necessary to twist two external layers into different directions with a minimum pitch to increase the current in the internal layers. It was shown that manufacturing round cable with more than two superconducting layers was unnecessary. Formulae are given allowing determination of the current in all layers. The theoretical conclusions were confirmed by the experimental results.