Earticle

This is a parameter study for the direct fabrication of a large grain YBCO bulk superconductors using Y2O3, BaCO3 and CuO powders without any grinding step. The cracks, which have been formed due to volume contraction during calcination step, have been prevented by controlling the heating rate at 930~950 ℃. It has been observed that multi-grain growth has occurred due to the dissolution of Sm123 seed due to the retention of carbon in Ba-Cu-O melt. In order to accelerate the carbon release in prior calcination heat treatment, the reduction of pellet thickness and the drilling of artificial holes have been applied. Single-grain YBCO bulk superconductor has been successfully fabricated by stacking multiple thin slab. However, the crack formation has been rather prominent for the compact with artificial holes. The use of buffer pellet, which is supposed to act as diffusion barrier, has prevented the dissolution of Sm123 seed crystal and has led to the growth of single grain of high content of carbon containing specimen.

As demand for electricity in urban areas increases, it is necessary to improve electric power stability by interconnecting neighboring substations and high temperature superconductor (HTS) power cables are considered as a promising option due to its large power capacity. However, the interconnection of substations reduces grid impedance and expected fault current is over 45 kA, which exceeds the capacity of a circuit breaker in Korean grid. To reduce the fault current below 45 kA, a HTS power cable having a fault current limiting (FCL) function is considered by as a feasible solution for the interconnection of substations. In this study, a FCL HTS power cable of 600 MVA/154 kV, transmission level class, is considered to reduce the fault current from 63 kA to less than 45 kA by generating an impedance over 1 Ωwhen the fault current is induced. For the thermal design of FCL HTS power cable, a parametric study is conducted to meet a required temperature limit and impedance by modifying the cable core from usual HTS power cables which are designed to bypass the fault current through cable former. The analysis results give a minimum cable length and an area of stainless steel former to suppress the temperature of cable below a design limit.

As high homogeneity in magnetic field is required to increase the resolution of MRI magnets, various shimming methods have been researched. Using one of them, the design of the superconducting active zonal shim coil for MRI magnets is discussed in this paper. The magnetic field of the MRI magnet is expressed as the sum of spherical harmonic terms, and the optimized current density of shim coils capable of removing higher-order terms is calculated by the Tikhonov regularization method. To investigate all potential designs derived from calculated current density, 4 sweeping parameters are selected: (1) axial length of shim coil zone; (2) radius of shim coils; (3) exact axial position of shim coils; and (4) operating current. After adequate designs are determined with constraints of critical current margin and homogeneity criterion, the total wire length required for each is calculated and the design with a minimum of them is chosen. Using the superconducting wire length of 9.77 km, the field homogeneity over 50 cm DSV is improved from 24 ppm to 1.87 ppm in the case study for 9.4 T whole-body MRI shimming. Finally, the results are compared with the finite element method (FEM) simulation results to validate the feasibility and accuracy of the design.

Cryogenic insulation systems, with proper materials selection and execution, can offer the highest levels of thermal performance. Insulations are listed in order of increasing performance and, generally, in order of increasing cost. The specific insulation to be used for a particular application is determined through a compromise between cost, ease of application and the effectiveness of the insulation. Consequently, materials, representative test conditions, and engineering approach for the particular application are crucial to achieve the optimum result. The present work is based on energy cost balance for optimizing the thickness of insulated chambers, using foamed or multi layered cryogenic shell. The considered insulation is a uniformly applied outer layer whose thickness varies with the initial and boundary conditions of the studied vessel under steady-state radial heat transfer. An expression of the optimal insulation thickness derived from the total cost function and depending on the geometrical parameters of the container is presented.

Heat leakage is an important parameter to reflect heat insulated performance of cryogenic vessel. According to the current standard requirements, it needs to measure the daily evaporation rate to indicate heat leakage. The test needs-over 24h after cryogenic vessel in heat equilibrium as standard required, therefore test efficiency is poor and new efficient method is required to cut test time. First of all, the volume of instantaneous evaporated gas and heat leakage are calculated by the current standard corresponding to the maximum allowable daily evaporation rate of cryogenic vessel. Depending on the relationship between real daily evaporation rate and maximum allowable daily evaporation rate of cryogenic vessel, we designed a new test method based on the pressure changes over time in cryogenic vessel to determine whether its heat insulated performance meets requirements or not. Secondly, the heat transfer process was analyzed in measurement of cryogenic vessel, and the heat transfer equations of whole system were established. Finally, the test was completed in four hours; meanwhile the heat leakage and daily evaporation rate of cryogenic vessel are calculated basing on test data.