Earticle

With the increasing development of renewable energy, it is expected that large-scale renewable power would be transportedfrom the west and north area of China to the east and south area. For this reason, it will be necessary to develop a wide-area powergrid in which the renewable energy would be the dominant power source, and the power grid will be faced by some criticalchallenges such as long-distance large-capacity power transmission, the stability of the wide-area power grid and the land useproblem for the power grid. The superconducting technology for power (STP) would be a possible alternative for the developmentof China’s future power grid. In last decade, STP has been extensively developed in China. In this paper, we present an overview ofthe R&D of STP last decade in China including: 1) the development of high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials, 2) DCpower cables, 3) superconducting power substations, 4) fault current limiters and 5) superconducting magnetic energy storage(SMES).

For many applications of ReBa2Cu3O7-x (ReBCO) tapes it is needed to know the anisotropic properties of the used conductor in a broad range of magnetic field. In this paper we present the results of transport measurements on the SuNAM tape (GdBaCuO) with the rotation of the sample in magnetic fields up to 5 T in liquid nitrogen. The critical current over the magnetic field orientation (Ic(θ)) curves demonstrate the appearance of distinct second peak around c-axis in low fields. This peak almost vanishes in the fields over 3 T. The evolution of the ab-peak form is also presented: the peak consistently reduces its height with the magnetic field going up and in the high fields the shoulders rise, changing the type of the distribution. To describe experimental curves the vortex path model was applied to the angular distributions of the critical current in magnetic field. Good agreements of the experimental data with the analytical expressions were obtained that confirm the vortex path model approach.

High-temperature superconducting coated conductors (HTS-CCs) are good candidates for resistive superconducting fault current limiter (RSFCL) applications. However, the high current density they can carry and their low thermal diffusivity expose them to the risk of thermal instability. In order to find the best compromise between stability and cost, it is important to study the heat transfer between HTS-CCs and the liquid nitrogen (LN2) bath. This paper presents an experimental method to monitor in real-time the temperature of a quenched HTS-CC during a current pulse. The current and the associated voltage are measured, giving a precise knowledge of the amount of energy dissipated in the tape. These values are compared with an adiabatic numerical thermal model which takes into account heat capacity temperature dependence of the stabilizer and substrate. The result is a precise estimation of the heat transfer to the liquid nitrogen bath at each time step. Measurements were taken on a bare tape and have been repeated using increasing Kapton® insulation layers. The different heat exchange regimes can be clearly identified. This experimental method enables us to characterize the recooling process after a quench. Finally, suggestions are done to reduce the temperature increase of the tape, at a rated current and given limitation time, using different thermal insulation thicknesses.

Due to the considerable development of the technology of second generation high-temperature superconductors and a significant improvement in their mechanical and transport properties in the last few years it is possible to use HTS tapes in the magnetic levitation systems. The advantages of tapes on a metal substrate as compared with bulk YBCO material primarily in the strength, and the possibility of optimizing the convenience of manufacturing elements of levitation systems. In the present report presents the results of the magnetic levitation force measurements between the stack of HTS tapes containing n = 2 ÷ 200 of tapes 12mm x 12 mm and NdFeB permanent magnet in the FC and ZFC regimes. It was found a non- linear dependence of the levitation force from the height of the array of stack in both modes: linear growth at small thickness gives way to flattening and constant at large number of tapes in the stack. Established that the levitation force of stacks comparable to that of bulk samples. The numerical calculations using finite element method showed that without the screening of the applied field the levitation force of the bulk superconductor and the layered superconductor stack with a critical current of tapes increased by the filling factor is exactly the same, and taking into account the screening force slightly different.

Coated conductor is an important candidate for power cable applications due to its high current density. Even for DC power cable transmission, we must study the transport properties of HTS tapes after slow and fast discharge. In order to evaluate relation of the magnetic field with applied current we developed a scanning magnetic field measurements system by employing a Hall probe. This work presents the measurements of the magnetic fields above a coated conductor by varying applied current pattern. In the work, a transport current of 100 A, less than the critical current, is applied to YBCO coated conductor. We measured the residual magnetic field distributions after cut off the transport current with slow and fast operations. The results show differences of the magnetic field profiles and the corresponding current profiles by an inverse solution from the magnetic field measurement between these two operations because of the hysteresis of coated conductor excited by the transport current.

New results of dependence of magnetic field, trapped by a stack of HTS tapes, on amount of tapes in a stack are reported. Commercial GdBCO tape 12 mm width and without Cu layer was used for the research. Tape was divided in square pieces 12 x 12 mm2 from which stacks were formed. Filling factor of the tape was about 1.4%. Measurements were carried out for stacks with height from 5 to 250 pieces and at wide temperature range from liquid helium to liquid nitrogen. Both FC (field cooling) and ZFC (zero field cooling) cooling methods were used in the research. These two methods show matching results with good accuracy. As a result dependences of trapped magnetic flux on amount of tapes for different temperatures were received. Research shows, that with increasing height of the stack trapped magnetic field value reach saturation at about 60 tapes in a stack for low temperatures. From 60 to 100 tapes increase of magnet flux is only 5%. Thus increase amount of tapes in a stack is not profitable. Also investigation of trapped magnet field relaxation was carried out. Relaxation speed decreases with increasing amount of elements. It means that the higher the stack is, the longer trapped flux will be held in cause of the same temperature.

The experimental investigation of resistance and thermal impacts stability of coated conductor joints has been carried out. We measured resistances of solder layers with the thicknesses ca. 10, 20, 30 and 40 μm and additionally studied their stability against thermal impacts. The obtained results show a high quality of this joints and their applicability, e.g., for design of current leads in various superconductive energy applications.

An in-flight fragment separator, which aims to produce and study rare isotopes, consists of superferric quadrupole triplets and 30° dipole magnets to focus and bend the beams for achromatic focusing and momentum dispersion, respectively. The separator is divided into pre and main stages, and we plan to use superconducting magnets employing high-Tc superconductor (HTS) coils in the pre-separator area, where radiation heating is high. The HTS coils will be cooled by cold He gas in 20- 50 K, and in the other area, superferric magnets using low-temperature superconductor (LTS) will be used at 4 K. A few LTS coils were wound and successfully tested in a LHe dewar, and the design of cryostat has been optimized. Development of the HTS coils is ongoing in collaboration with a group at KERI. An HTS coil of racetrack shape was wound and tested in a LN2 bath and in a dewar with cryocooler. No degradation on critical current due to coil winding was found.

Many kinds of high temperature superconducting (HTS) devices are being developed due to its several advantages. In particular, the advantages of HTS devices are maximized under the DC condition. A line commutated converter (LCC) type high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system requires large capacity of DC reactors to protect the converters from faults. However, conventional DC reactor made of copper causes a lot of electrical losses. Thus, it is being attempted to apply the HTS DC reactor to an HVDC transmission system. The authors have developed a 8 mH class HTS DC reactor and a model- sized LCC type HVDC system. The HTS DC reactor was operated to analyze its operational characteristics in connection with the HVDC system. The voltage at both ends of the HTS DC reactor was measured to investigate the stability of the reactor. The voltages and currents at the AC and DC side of the system were measured to confirm the influence of the HTS DC reactor on the system. Two 5 mH copper DC reactors were connected to the HVDC system and investigated to compare the operational characteristics. In this paper, the operational characteristics of the HVDC system with the HTS DC reactor according to firing angle are described. The voltage and current characteristics of the system according to the types of DC reactors and harmonic characteristics are analyzed. Through the results, the applicability of an HTS DC reactor in an HVDC system is confirmed.

Many studies are being conducted to implement wireless charging, for example, for cellular phones or electronic tooth brushes, via wireless power transmission technique. However, the magnetic induction method had a very short transmission distance. To solve this problem, the team of Professor Marin Soljacic proposed a magnetic resonance system that used two resonance coils with the same resonance frequency. It had an approximately 40% efficiency at a 2m distance. The system improved the low efficiency and short distance problems of the existing systems. So it could also widen the application range of wireless power transmission. Many studies on the subject are underway. In this paper, the superconductor coil was used to improve the efficiency of magnetic resonance wireless power transmission. The resonance wireless power transmission system had a source coil, a load coil, and resonance coils (a transmitter and a receiver). The efficiency and distance depended on the characteristics of the transmitter and receiver coils that had the same resonance frequency. Therefore, two resonance coils were fabricated by superconductors. The current density of the superconductor was higher than that of the normal conductor coil. Accordingly, it had a high quality-factor and improved efficiency