Earticle

Normal zone propagation (NZP) within jointed YBCO coated conductors (CC) was analyzed experimentally. The joint between CC tapes were conducted by lap joint method and the characteristics of the jointed CC tapes measured from V-I curve. NZP was induced by thermal heaters attached to two points of the jointed CC tapes; the voltages across the jointed CC tapes were measured and recorded. NZP induced by each heater point is compared in point of protection of CC tapes and magnet. This study about NZP of the jointed tapes may be useful to make a magnet system with several coils using YBCO CC.

In this study, the effect of bending strain on the transport property and critical current of lap and butt-jointed (non-laminated) BSCCO tapes has been investigated. The samples were joined using a mechanically controlled jointing procedure. To achieve a uniform thickness at the joint a single point loading contact has been devised. GFRP mandrels with different bending radii which support the sample during bending have been used. Ic have been measured at 77 K and self field. In the case of easy bending test for jointed BSCCO tapes, sudden degradation of Ic is caused by the local strain concentration due to non uniform deformation at the edge parts of the joint. In the case of hard bending test of jointed BSCCO tapes transverse macroscopic crack at specific subsection caused a large Ic degradation. The transport property of jointed BSCCO tapes in each bending mode was discussed with the damage morphology occurred.

A lamination system using reflow soldering was developed to enhance the mechanical properties of high temperature superconductor (HTS) tape. The laminated coated conductor tape was fabricated using the continuous lamination process. The mean, maximum, and minimum tensile loads in a T-peel test of the laminated coated conductor were 9.9 N, 12.5 N, and 7.6 N, respectively. The critical current (Ic) distributions of the non-laminated and laminated coated conductor were compared using a non-contact Hall probe method. The transport Ic nearly matched the non-contact Ic; however, some degraded Ic regions were found on the length of 800 cm of laminated coated conductor. We confirmed that the cause of the partially degraded Ic was due to an increase in line tension by (1) solidification induced by a change of composition that usually occurs in molten brass (Cu, Zn) in solder, or (2) non-homogeneity of the thickness of the coated conductor or metal tapes. We suggest that reflow soldering is a promising method for reinforced HTS tape if the controlling solder thickness and lamination guide are modified.

The superconducting synchronous motor or generator mostly has high permeability iron only around outer yoke portion. Therefore, if excitation voltage (Back E.M.F) is calculated from 2 dimensional magnetic field distributions, it can be largely different from actual value due to additional voltage originated from end coils. In order to calculate the excitation voltage more accurately, 3 dimensional magnetic field calculation is necessary for including the end coil effect from large air-gap structure. The excitation voltage can be calculated by stator (armature) coil linkage flux originated from rotor (field) coil excitation, but it is difficult to calculate the flux linkage exactly because of complicated structure of the stator coil. This paper shows a method to calculate the excitation voltage from 3 dimensional magnetic energy that can be calculated directly from volume integration of magnetic flux density and field intensity scalar product through FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis software.

A considerable amount of research material discussing designs and properties of High Temperature Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (HTS FCL) is available. However, a shortage of research concerning positioning of HTS FCL in power grid is felt. In this paper a feasibility study of HTS FCL positioning in Smart Grid through simulation analysis is carried out. A complete power network (including generation, transmission and distribution) is modeled in Simulink / SimPowerSystems. A generalized HTS FCL is also designed by integrating Simulink and SimPowerSystem blocks. The distribution network of the model has a wind turbine attached to it forming a micro grid. Three phase fault have been simulated along with placing FCL models at key points of the distribution grid. It is observed that distribution grid, having distributed generation sources attached to it, must not have a single FCL located at the substation level. Optimized HTS FCL location regarding the best fault current contribution from wind turbine has been determined through simulation analysis.

This paper deals with numerical analysis on a high-Tc superconducting (HTS) electrodynamic suspension (EDS) simulator according to the variation of the ground conductor conditions. Because the levitation force of EDS system is formed by the magnetic reaction between moving magnets and fixed ground conductors, the distribution of the magnetic flux on a ground conductor plays an important role in the determining of the levitation force level. The possible way to analyze HTS EDS system was implemented with 3D finite element method (FEM) tool. A plate type ground conductor generated stronger levitation force than ring type ground conductor. Although the outer diameter of Ring3 (335 mm) was larger than that of Ring2 (235 mm), the levitation force by Ring2 was stronger than that by Ring3. Considering the results of this paper, it is recommended that the magnetic flux distribution according to the levitation height and magnet current should be taken into account in the design of the ground conductors.

A cooldown time is one of the major factors in many cryocooler applications, especially for the design of conduction-cooled superconducting apparatus. The estimation of cooldown seeks the elapsed time to cool thermal object by a cryocooler during initial cooldown process. This procedure includes the dimension of cold mass, heat transfer analysis for cryogenic load and available refrigerating capacity of a cryocooler. This method is applied to the specific cooling system for a 3 Tesla superconducting magnet cooled by a two-stage GM cryocooler. The result is compared with that of experiment, showing that the results of proposed method have a good agreement with experiments during initial cooling of superconducting magnet.

The experimental results 01' the 2 stage Gifford-McMahon(GM) type pulse tube refrigerator (PTR) for cryopump are presented in this paper. The objectives of this study are to develop design technology of the integral type 2 stage PTR which rotary valve is directly connected to the hot end of the regenerator and acquire its improved performance. Design of the 2 stage PTR is conducted by FZKPTR(forschungs Zentrum Karlsruhe Pulse Tube Refrigerator) program for the design of pulse tube refrigerators. The fabricated PTR has U-type configuration and incorporates orifice valve, double-inlet valve and reservoir as phase control mechanism. Rotary valve is used to make pulsating pressure and is directly connected to inlet of lst stage regenerator. From experiments, cooling performance map and pressure waveform at each point were measured for different operating frequencies. Experimental results show the best cooling performance with 2 Hz operation in spite of small pressure amplitude. The lowest temperatures of the 2 stage PTR were 16.9 K at the second stage and 58.0 K at the first stage. The cooling capacities achieved were 14.4 W at 79 K, the first stage and 3.6 W at 29 K, the second stage.