Earticle

This paper describes current status of High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) rotating machinery development in Japan. Recent advances in production technology of HTS materials have continuously stimulated the development of high performance rotating machines. One of the most promising applications for such machines is the ship propulsion, and then some major projects have been underway. Also, energetic challenges for the HTS drive motor, e.g., automobile, have started. Furthermore, low speed and large capacity HTS generators are considered to be exciting candidates for wind turbines. The technology trends of the HTS rotating machines is introduced and discussed in this review paper.

This paper shows results of a design work of a program that is to develop a large power single phase high temperature superconducting (HTS) transformer. The program forms a part of a national project in Korea. A target of the design work is an HTS power transformer with rated voltages of 154 kV/22.9 kV and material for windings is supposed to be coated conductor. The design results presents in this paper will include: 1) HTS winding structures for high voltage in liquid nitrogen, 2) design result of continuously transposed coated conductor (CTCC), 3) conceptual design of high voltage bushings, 4) cooling system. A feasibility study will succeed to this design work for construction of a prototype HTS power transformer with capacity/voltage of 33 MVA/154 kV.

Superconducting motor has a lot of benefits from high power density for ship propulsions, so a number of research project are in progress worldwide. Despite of all the benefits, there is always a difficulty of cryo-moving part for conventional air-core superconducting synchronous motors. In order to get rid of this moving cryogenic part, we propose a homopolar superconducting synchronous motor, which has high temperature superconducting armature and field coils. The rotor is supposed to be made of iron only and excited by the stationary HTS field coils. The stationary field coils make the cooling system simple and easy to realize because there is no cryo-moving part. A design result of a 10 hp homopolar synchronous motor is presented in this paper. The self and mutual inductance of the motor having the size of air gap as variable parameter are calculated by a 3-dimemsional finite element method. The value of design variables such as the dimension of a motor and the number of turns, etc. is decided by performing the coordinate transformation of the calculated inductance. The operating frequency is supposed to be below 5 Hz for low rotating speed which is needed for a purpose of ship propulsion. Low frequency also has the benefit of low AC losses.

This paper describes the reduction method of eddy current loss generated into a retaining ring installed in wound-field superconducting machine. In order to suggest the reduction method of eddy current loss of the retaining ring, this paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, eddy current loss of prototype model is calculated. Secondly, eddy current loss versus material and shape of the retaining ring is compared. Finally, the material and the shape of the retaining ring to reduce coupling loss generated by a time-varying magnetic field are proposed. In this paper, eddy current loss is calculated by 3-dimensional transient analysis.

Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) has attracted a great deal of interest from the viewpoint of energy saving. The magnet of conduction-cooled high temperature superconducting (HTS) SMES is cooled down by a cryocooler. One of the most important problems to be assured the protection of magnet and cryocooler is breakdown at cryogenic temperature. In this study, we investigated insulation materials such as Kapton, Aluminum Nitride (AlN), Alumina (Al2O3), glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) and vacuum in cryogenic temperature. Also, we analyzed statistically the Weibull distribution of breakdown voltage.

Superconducting high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) has advantages to treat wastewater because it can generate high magnetic field and achieve rapid purification. In this study superconducting HGMS was applied to remove impurities from the condenser water in thermal power plant. The condenser water contained mainly hematite and maghemite and it was highly magnetized than hematite. In the HGMS tests using a 6-T cryo-cooled Nb-Ti superconducting magnet, the turbidity of the condenser water was effectively reduced up to 99.6% and the result showed better performance than that of the 0.5-T permanent magnet test. The higher magnetic field was applied in the range of 1-6 T, the more iron oxides were removed. The effect of magnetic filter configuration on the condenser water treatment was also investigated. Consequently superconducting HGMS system can be applicable to remove iron oxide impurities from condenser water in thermal power plant.

A compact phase controller of pulse tube refrigerator is proposed in this paper. Most pulse tube refrigerators available now consist of a long inertance tube and reservoir as the phase controller. The long inertance tube and reservoir present a challenge for compact packaging in some applications. To overcome this disadvantage, the long inertance tube and reservoir are replaced with the compact phase controller consisted of mass, spring and damper in pulse tube refrigerator. This process is achieved using similarity of mechanical, electrical, and acoustic system and the specific configuration of the compact phase controller is designed. From the simulation code in this paper, the performance of pulse tube refrigerator with the designed compact phase controller is confirmed to be comparable to pulse tube refrigerator with the long inertance tube and reservoir.

The thermal properties of insulation material are essential to develop a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) power cable to be operated at around liquid nitrogen temperature. Unlike metallic materials, nonmetallic materials have a high thermal resistance; therefore special attention needs to be paid to estimate heat flow correctly. Thus, we have developed a precise instrument for measuring the thermal conductivity of insulating materials over a temperature range from 40 K to near room temperature using a cryocooler. Firstly, the measurement of thermal conductivity for Teflon is carried out for accuracy confirmation. For a supplied heat flux, the temperature difference between warm and cold side is measured in steady state, from which the thermal conductivity of Teflon is calculated and compared with published result of NIST. In addition, the apparent thermal conductivity of Polypropylene laminated paper (PPLP) is presented and its temperature dependency is discussed.