Development of a Superconducting Electromagnet Iron Separator

A Superconducting Electromagnet Iron Separator (SEIS) with a central field of 3?Tesla has been developed in China. The SEIS is specially designed for removing ferromagnetic substances from coal. The NbTi magnet generates a 4000?Gauss field at a distance of 550?mm from the bottom of the separator. The first experimental test was carried out in October 2008. The results are quite satisfying. The SEIS is operating in Rizhao Port now, and the appraisal of the system was successfully conducted in June 2010. This paper presents the detail of the design, fabrication, test results, and operation of the SEIS.     

A superconducting coil indirectly cooled by forced helium flow

A small superconducting coil is indirectly cooled by a forced flow of helium. The coil, wound from Nb-Ti-Zr multifilament superconducting composite, is 15 mm id, 24 mm od and 30 mm long. The maximum central field is 30.3 kG at 4.2 K. Contact between the cooling tube and the coil is achieved using grease.The experimental results are expressed by a relation of critical current and energizing rate. Typical transient temperatures of the coil and coolant during energizing and after quenching are presented.The analysis shows the design of coils of this type is possible using hysteresis loss and heat conduction analysis.     

Development of a Nb3Sn multifilamentary composite conductor for a.c. use

A Nb₃Sn composite conductor with ≈ 10 000 submicron diameter filaments has been manufactured using the external diffusion process. A.c. losses were greatly reduced by the use of a fine filament size (0.53 μm, design value), a tight twist pitch (0.87 mm) and a small wire diameter (0.153 mm) with a bronze matrix. In an a.c. field with a frequency of 50 Hz and amplitude of 2.0 T, the hysteresis loss and the coupling current loss were observed to be 465 kW m⁻³ and 26 kW m⁻³, respectively. A triplex conductor was constructed by cabling three strands at a twisting pitch of 3 mm, and a small coil was wound from this cable (i.d. 11 mm, o.d. 33 mm, axial length 19 mm). With d.c. the coil generated a field of 1.3 T at the critical current, l_c of 37.4 A. When the coil was operated at 50 Hz, with an exciting current of I_c, the observed loss averaged over the windings was 240 kW m⁻³. The quenching current for 50 Hz operation was 53 A at a maximum field of 1.8 T. This was considerably higher than the critical values under d.c. conditions. Preliminary studies have shown that, if this conductor is used in superconducting armature windings of rotating machines, economical benefits are obtained compared with the use of conventional armatures.     

卷钢专用平台箱的三维建模及有限元分析

目的 针对国内外采用集装箱方式装载卷钢的现状及存在的问题,初步设计一种20 ft(1 ft=0.3048 m)卷钢专用平台箱(内部尺寸为5.9 m×2.35 m×2.393 m,门宽为2.342 m,门高为2.28 m),并分析其力学性能.方法 利用SolidWorks软件建立平台箱的三维模型,通过对其在调车冲击工况下的载荷和约束进行分析,利用Ansys Workbench软件建立有限元模型,并进行平台箱强度有限元计算.结果 得到该平台箱在最不利工况下的等效应力和位移情况.其中,卷钢支架支撑面和角件内侧壁部位出现了应力集中现象,最大工作应力值为234.01 MPa,不超出结构钢材料的许用应力(246 MPa);最薄弱环节的最大变形量为1.0572 mm,在允许范围内.结论 仿真结果表明该平台箱满足结构强度要求.     

ORPUS-1 - A pulsed superconducting solenoid

A recent series of reference designs for Tokamak Experimental Power Reactors (EPR's) has indicated that superconducting poloidal field (PF) coils will be necessary for successful operation of these devices. It would also be desirable to use superconducting PF coils in earlier tokamak fusion devices if such coils could be developed quickly enough. In this paper, the PF coil performance requirements are briefly reviewed and some implications for the coil design are developed. A small coil (stored energy 14 kJ) has been built using construction techniques similar to those which could be employed for PF coils. The coil has been charged at rates up to 2 T/sec. Both maximum field and charging rate were limited by available power supplies. Loss measurements were carried out during pulsed operation and data for hysteretic and eddy current loss are presented. The loss measurement system used allows considerable insight into the effects of conductor motion and training.     

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.     

A multiple purpose 7TNbTi split coil superconducting magnet system for Mössbauer spectroscopy and susceptibility measurements at various temperatures

The design, construction and test results of a compact NbTi coil system are described. The dimensions are: 198 mm outside diameter, 290 mm total length, 52 mm vertical central bore, 20 mm horizontal bore. The system consists of two assistant coils in addition to the main split pair. A total of ten wire sections is involved. Each part of the system can be separately charged or several other modes of operation are possible. So the main split pair can be used alone. In the screening mode operation one or both of the assistant coils keep the magnetic induction below 0.1 T, within certain ranges on and near the axis. Finally, in the gradient mode operation, the assistant coils are charged in the opposite direction so that a linear gradient field is superposed onto the main field. The versatility of this coil system implies the use of three independent superconducting switches.The coil system is mounted in a stainless steel dewar which has horizontal and vertical access for Mössbauer spectroscopy at various temperatures. An additional insert allows susceptibility measurements in the temperature range from 2 K up to 300 K. Details on the cryostat (designed by L. Bogner, F. Parak and W. Wiedemann) will be published later.     

A self-resonant frequency-modulated micromachined passive pressure transensor

In this paper, we report on the design, fabrication, and test of a passive pressure transensor. The sensor uses the self-resonant frequency modulation of an integrated coil to detect the pressure variations. This modulation is generated by the relative displacement of a ferrite core attached to a silicone rubber membrane. This scheme simplifies the packaging of the passive transensor by removing the requirement for a separate capacitor to form the resonator. A 30-turn 1.7-/spl mu/H coil having dimensions of 3/spl times/3 mm/sup 2/ is used in a prototype design yielding a sensitivity of 9.6 kHz/kPa with a cylindrical ferrite core of 0.95-mm diameter and 0.5-mm height. We also present a theoretical model of the sensor that shows good agreement with the experimental data. This model can be a useful tool for further optimization of the senors.     

Design and Performance of the First Dual-Coil Magnet at the Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center

The first 80 T dual-coil magnet was manufactured and tested at the Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center (WHMFC). The inner coil consists of 8 layers of 2.8 mm × 4.3 mm CuNb microcomposite wire developed in China; the bore diameter is 14 mm and the outer diameter 135 mm. The outer coil was wound directly on the inner coil with 12 layers of 3 mm × 6 mm soft copper. Each conductor layer of both coils was reinforced by Zylon/epoxy composite. The inner and outer coil were driven by a 1.6 MJ/5.12 mF capacitor bank and by eight 1 MJ/3.2 mF modules, respectively. At the voltage of 14.3 kV for the inner coil and 22 kV for the outer coil, the inner and outer coils produced peak fields of 48.5 T and 34.5 T respectively, which gave a total field of 83 T. This was the first combined operation of the new capacitor banks installed at the WHMFC. We present details of the design, manufacture and test of the dual-coil magnet and discuss crucial material properties. Based on this experience, a second dual-coil magnet will be designed; the enhanced design will be discussed. With the total energy of 12.6 MJ, peak field up to 90 T is expected.     

Electromagnetic analysis of a superconducting transformer for high current characterization of cable in conduit conductors in background magnetic field

A large cable-in-conduit-conductor (CICC) test facility has been designed and fabricated at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CHMFL) in order to meet the test requirement of the conductors which are applied to the future fusion reactor. The critical component of the test facility is an 80 kA superconducting transformer which consists of a multi-turn primary coil and a minor-turn secondary coil. As the current source of the conductor samples, the electromagnetic performance of the superconducting transformer determines the stability and safety of the test facility. In this paper, the key factors and parameters, which have much impact on the performance of the transformer, are analyzed in detail. The conceptual design and optimizing principles of the transformer are discussed. An Electromagnetic-Circuit coupled model built in ANSYS Multiphysics is successfully used to investigate the electromagnetic characterization of the transformer under the dynamic operation condition.     

Numerical treatment of the quenching process in superconducting magnet systems

A computer program for testing coil and protection design of a composed magnet system is presented. Small high field magnets consisting of two uniaxial cylindrical coils of different superconducting materials (eg NbTi and V₃Ga or Nb₃Sn) are considered, each coil may be subdivided into several sections which are protected by parallel resistors. Quench propagation due to thermal conduction and also due to rapid current increase (important in inductively coupled systems) is taken into account by means of solving a one-dimensional thermodiffusion equation. Field and temperature dependence of the critical current for every layer of the coils, is taken into account. The program calculates the time dependence of currents, external and internal voltages, resistances of the sections and of the radial temperature distribution. Calculations are compared with experimental investigations of three different systems, the results agree with experimental values concerning current decay and propagation velocity.     

Rogowski Sensor for Plasma Current Measurement in J-TEXT

Rogowski coil is very useful in transient current measurement. Rogowski sensor consisting of Rogowski coil and integrator is one of the most important diagnostic instrumentations in Tokamak. In recent years, new structures of Rogowski coil based on printed circuit board (PCB) are developed to replace traditional handmade Rogowski coil for more excellent accuracy, better temperature stability, more accordant mutual-inductance, more symmetrical windings, and other advantages. However, the existing structures of Rogowski coil based on PCB are useless in Tokamak because the required Rogowski coil installed on the vacuum vessel should have long diameter and little space. This presentation provides a new twin-loops Rogowski coil (TRC) consisting of several PCB strips. TRC has all the advantages of existing PCB Rogowski coils and can meet the limited space requirement in Tokamak at the same time. A special experiment is carried out to prove that the mutual-inductance of TRC is immune to the variation of center position of plasma current. Moreover, a differential long-term integrator is designed to cooperate with the TRC. Two switches are used in the integrator to release the remaining electric charges on integrating capacitors once the measurement is over. Then, the error accumulation of integrator is canceled in repetitious measurements. The designed new Rogowski sensor can be used to measure long pulse current below 1 s.      

ITER CC导体接头测试装置设计与研制

根据国际热核实验反应堆(ITER)校正场线圈(CC)导体接头低温电阻的测试要求,设计并研制了一套用于超导导体接头的低温测试装置。该装置主要包括10 kA超导变压器、低温测试杜瓦、磁体失超保护系统和数据采集系统等。超导变压器的初级线圈及次级线圈采用LHe浸泡的方式进行冷却。超导变压器初级线圈电流引线采用常规铜电流引线,为增加铜的传热面积,采用编织铜引线代替铜棒引线。初级线圈外接磁体电源,利用电磁感应原理,在次级回路感应出超导导体接头测试所需的电流。已经成功进行了一次CC导体接头的低温实验,接头电阻的测试结果分别为8.4纳欧姆和9.3纳欧姆。     

Experimental study of a transformer with superconducting elements for fault current limitation and energy redistribution

Numerous proposed and developed superconducting fault current limiters and self-limiting transformers limit successfully fault currents but do not provide uninterrupted supplying of consumers. A design investigated in the work combines the functions of a conventional transformer with the functions of fast energy redistribution and fault protection. The device constitutes a transformer containing an additional high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coil short-circuited by a thin film HTS switching element. Fault current limitation and redistribution of the power flow to a standby line are achieved as a result of a fast transition of the superconducting switching element from the superconducting into the normal state. Transient and steady-state characteristics were experimentally investigated. A mathematical model of the device operation was proposed, and the calculated results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. The application field and basic requirements to such devices were discussed and it was shown that the proposed device meets these requirements.     

Experimental analysis of AC loss and recovery characteristics for proposal of effective thickness of spacers in pancake type

For the design of superconducting fault current limiter, the research about recovery time and AC loss is essential issue because this characteristic is closely related to stability and efficiency. In general, superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) modules can be made into pancake or solenoid type coil. While the pancake type coil has smaller AC loss, it has longer recovery time compared with the solenoid type coil. In this paper, a new pancake type coil was proposed to decrease recovery time by improving their cryogenic condition. A new pancake type coil is made with spacers between adjacent superconducting tapes. However, as the thickness of the spacer was increased, the AC loss was increased unlike the recovery characteristic. From the experimental results, our group confirmed that the pancake type coil with the spacer has trade-off relationship between AC loss and recovery characteristics with the spacer thickness.The proposed results in this paper would be utilized to design superconducting fault current limiters.     

Eddy current probe sensitivity as a function of coil construction parameters

We report the results of the first phase of a study designed to quantify the relationship between eddy current coil construction and the performance of these coils used in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) inspections. The ferrite core coils wound for this study are small but typical of the sizes commonly used in commercially manufactured eddy current probes. Coil diameters range from 1 mm to 7 mm with lengths from 0.5 mm to 4 mm. Seven parameters were studied and included ferrite diameter, ferrite permeability, coil aspect ratio, number of turns, distance of the windings from the inspection end of the ferrite, wire gauge, and length of the ferrite beyond the end of the windings. Additionally, the coil set was designed to provide some indication of the repeatability of identical constructions, what we have called winding inhomogeneity. The coils were incorporated into surface probes for scanning defects in flat plate specimens. The measure of sensitivity was the change of probe impedance (Z) as the probe was scanned from an unflawed area to the flawed area of the test specimen. Measurements were also made of the component of Z perpendicular to the liftoff vector.The data reported here were produced from a set of 27 probes scanned over a single defect. The defect was an electrical-discharge-machined (EDM) notch in a 19 mm thick 7075-T6 aluminum alloy specimen. The part-circular EDM notch was 9 mm long and 3 mm deep and 0.1 mm wide.Analysis of the data shows that the number of turns, the winding distance, the coil aspect ratio, and the backside ferrite length all affect the coil sensitivity. Winding inhomogeneity is significant for coils having many winding layers and can be considerably larger than the contribution made by variations in some of the construction factors. Wire gauge, ferrite diameter, and permeability showed no significant effects on our measure of sensitivity in this study.     

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.     

Development of a superconducting fault current limiter using various high-speed circuit breakers

The authors constructed and tested a model superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) using a high-temperature superconducting film according to a design that includes a vacuum interrupter with an electromagnetic repulsion mechanism. The superconductor and the vacuum interrupter are connected in parallel with a bypass coil. If a fault occurs and current flows through the system, 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. On opening the vacuum interrupter, the current in the superconductor is interrupted. This model is expected to exhibit very low-energy consumption by the superconductor. The authors succeeded in interrupting the current flowing in the superconductor within a half-cycle using a prototype SFCL. An improved SFCL with higher voltage and current ranges was used to carry out current-limiting tests and to investigate the possibility of adapting our SFCL in a power system. The authors also carried out a currentlimiting test using a conventional high-speed vacuum circuit breaker (HSVCB) as a new method for realising our concept.     

Rugged, portable tungsten coil atomic emission spectrometer

Tungsten coil atomic emission spectrometry is an ideal technique for field applications because of its simplicity, low cost, low power requirement, and independence from cooling systems. A new, portable, compact design is reported here. The tungsten coil is extracted from an inexpensive 24 V, 250 W commercial light bulb. The coil is housed in a small, aluminum cell. The emission signal exits from a small aperture in the cell, while the bulk of the blackbody emission from the tungsten coil is blocked. The resulting spectra exhibit extremely low background signals. The atomization cell, a single lens, and a hand-held charge coupled device (CCD) spectrometer are fixed on a 1 × 6 × 30 cm ceramic base. The resulting system is robust and easily transported. A programmable, miniature 400 W solid-state constant current power supply controls the temperature of the coil. Fifteen elements are determined with the system (Ba, Cs, Li, Rb, Cr, Sr, Eu, Yb, Mn, Fe, Cu, Mg, V, Al, and Ga). The precision ranges from 4.3% to 8.4% relative standard deviation for repetitive measurements of the same solution. Detection limits are in the 0.04 to 1500 μg/L range. Accuracy is tested using standard reference materials for polluted water, peach leaves, and tomato leaves. For those elements present above the detection limit, recoveries range from 72% to 147%.     

Construction and performance of an elliptically polarized undulator of type Apple-II

Ten years ago, an elliptically polarized undulator (EPU) with a periodic length of 56?mm was constructed at the Taiwan Light Source. It was the longest EPU at that time. An electron beam of energy 1.5?GeV and current 300?mA passes through the undulator gap and radiates variously polarized light in the soft X-ray spectral domain. This EPU was extensively used in a wide range of research fields, including inelastic scattering, spin-polarized photoemission spectroscopy, photoelectron emission microscopy, and soft X-ray scattering. In response to increased demand by users with differing experimental requirements and applications, the construction of an EPU with a period of length 46?mm is under way. This investigation describes many aspects of the magnetic design, the structural engineering, and the control system. As magnetic technology is undergoing dramatic advances, advanced mechanical devices, and mechanisms have been included in the new EPU design; this design and its differences from the earlier design are summarized here.