Earticle

In this review paper, we report the characteristics of the critical current density in FeAs based superconductors which is newly discovered by Hosono group of Tokyo Institute of Technology on 2008. Since the many specimens in present stage are not single crystals, there are two kinds of critical current density observed in the specimens which are so-called local and global critical current densities. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate both kinds of critical current densities. The history effect in which the global critical current density shows different values in increasing and decreasing magnetic field is also observed when the specimens have the local and the global critical current densities. The wire which critical current is 180 A is successfully developed with using the knowledge of abovementioned characteristics of two kinds of critical current densities and the history effect.

In order to recognize the allowable bending diameter in coils, the strain as function of diameters is evaluated. The irreversible strain limits of Ic in the easy and hard bending modes were measured. Strains were calculated at the coating film in the easy bending and at outer edge or inner edge in the hard bending of the CC tape, respectively. The tape geometry subjected to bending procedures is considered from the current industrial spool winding operation. Through the linear superposition of strain induced in different bending modes regarding the expressions, the appropriate design for critical bending diameter is suggested. Results proved that the existence of buckling resulting from bending in hard direction when applied strain exceeded 0.6% is possible. The depicted results showed that the strain limit as a viable parameter should be considered for future purposes.

This paper presents simulation and small-scale experimental tests of a fault current controller. Smart fault controller as proposed and proven conceptually in our previous work is promising technology for the smart power grid where distributed and even stochastic generation sources are prevalent and grid operations are more dynamic. Existing protection schemes simply limiting the fault current to the pre-determined set values may not show best performance and even lead to coordination failures, potentially leading to catastrophic failure. Thus, this paper designs fault current controller with a full bridge thyristor rectifier, embedding a superconducting coil for which the controller is electrically invisible during normal operation because the loss due to the coil is near-zero. When a fault occurs and the resulting current through the superconducting coil exceeds a certain value set intelligently based on the current operating condition of the grid, the magnitude of the fault current is controlled to this desired value by adjusting the firing angles of thyristors such that the overall system integrity is successfully maintained. Detailed time-domain simulations are performed and lab-scale testing circuits are built to demonstrate the desired functionality and efficacy of the proposed fault current controller.

The influence of current distribution on the transport current loss in vertically stacked high-Tc superconductor (HTS) tapes was evaluated. AC loss was analyzed as a function of current distribution by introducing a current distribution parameter through a numerical method (finite element analysis). AC loss under non-uniform current distribution is always higher than that for a uniformly distributed transport current in a conductor. Although the effect of non-uniformity is relatively insignificant in low transport current, AC loss increases substantially in high transport current regions as non-uniformity is enlarged. The results verify that non-uniform current distribution causes extra loss by examining the cross-sectional view of current densities in stacked conductor.

With continuous development of the 2nd generation HTS conductor, the critical current of the conductor is also increasing. However, many applications require more than 2 conductors in parallel to transport large current. Applications such as HTS power cables and some HTS current leads usually need much larger transport current than that provided by a single conductor and they require more than several tens of HTS conductors. In the case of parallel connection of multiple HTS conductors, the current distribution depends on the contact resistance of each conductor at the terminals for DC operation. The non-uniform distribution of the terminal resistances results in a non-uniform distribution of the current. The resultant current non-uniformity affects on the measurement of the I-V curve and the thermal performance of the multiple conductors. This paper describes the I-V curves obtained from multiply connected HTS conductors with different terminal contact resistances to investigate the relationship between the distorted I-V curve and heat generation.

The superconducting coil system is one of the most important components in Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), which has been operated since 2008. Nb3Sn and NbTi superconductors are being used for cable-in-conduit conductors (CICCs) of the KSTAR toroidal field (TF) and poloidal field (PF) coils. The CICCs are cooled by forced-flow supercritical helium about 4.5 K. The temperature, pressure and mass flow rate of the supercritical helium in the CICCs are interacting with each other during the operation of the coils. The complicate behaviors of the supercritical helium have an effect on the operation and the efficiency of the helium refrigeration system (HRS) by means of, for instance, pressure drop. The hydraulic characteristics of the supercritical helium have been monitored while the TF coils have stably achieved the full current of 35 kA. In other hands, the PF coils have been operated with various pulsed or bipolar mode, so the drastic changes happen in view of hydraulics. The heat load including AC loss on the coils has been analyzed according to the measurement. These activities are important to estimate the temperature margin in various PF operation conditions. In this paper, the latest hydraulic behaviors of PF coils during KSTAR operation are presented.

The study on the dielectric characteristics of gaseous insulation medium is important for designing current leads of superconducting machines using a sub-cooled liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling method. In a sub-cooled LN2 cooling system, the temperature of gaseous insulation medium surrounding current leads varies from the temperature of coolant to 300 K according to the displacement between the electrode system and the surface of sub-cooled LN2. In this paper, AC withstand voltage experiments on gaseous nitrogen according to temperature are conducted. Also, AC withstand voltage experiments on gaseous nitrogen according to pressure, size of electrode, and gap length between two electrodes are performed. It is found that there is a functional relation between the electrical breakdown voltage and the field utilization factor (ξ). As a result, the empirical formula for estimating an electrical breakdown voltage is deduced by adopting the concept of field utilization factors. It is expected that the experimental results presented in this paper are helpful to design current leads for a high voltage superconducting apparatus such as a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) using a sub-cooled LN2 cooling system.

The objective of the present work is to develop a precise instrument for measuring the thermal property of insulating material over a temperature range from 30 K to near room temperature by utilizing a cryocooler. The instrument consists of two thermal links, a test sample, heat sink, heat source and vacuum vessel. The cold head of the cryocooler as a heat sink is thermally anchored to the thermal link and used to bring the apparatus to a desired temperature in a vacuum chamber. An electric heater as a heat source is placed in the middle of test sample for generating uniform heat flux. The entire apparatus is covered by thermal shields and wrapped in multi-layer insulation to minimize thermal radiation in a vacuum chamber. For a supplied heat flux the temperature distribution in the insulating material is measured in steady and transient state. The thermal conductivity of insulating material is measured from temperature difference for a given heat flux. In addition, the specific heat of insulating material is obtained by solving one-dimensional heat diffusion equation.