AC coupling losses in superconducting multistage cables with and without additional co-twisted copper strands

A simple technique is proposed to evaluate interstrand AC coupling losses deposed in superconducting multistage cables under low excitation of the transverse homogeneous time-varying magnetic field. The technique uses the superposition of the solutions for the induced coupling currents and interstrand or intersubcable AC losses in pairs of strands or subcables, constituting a multistage cable. The technique is valid under assumption of no resistance offered by strands and subcables for the longitudinal currents. The method allows one also to take into account the effect of additional co-twisted pure copper strands or subcables.     

AC losses in circular arrangements of parallel superconducting tapes

The DC and AC properties of superconducting tapes connected in parallel and arranged in a single closed layer on two tubes (corresponding to power cable conductor models with infinite pitch) with different diameters are compared. We find that the DC properties, i.e., the critical currents of the two arrangements, scale with the number of tapes and hence appear to be independent of the diameter. However, the AC loss per tape (for a given current per tape) appears to decrease with increasing diameter of the circular arrangement. Compared to a model for the AC loss in a continuous superconducting layer (Monoblock model) the measured values are about half an order of magnitude higher than expected for the small diameter arrangement. When compared to the AC loss calculated for N individual superconducting tapes using a well known model (Norris elliptical) the difference is slightly smaller.     

Experimental investigation of AC losses and effective time constant in the high current cable

The report is dedicated to the results of AC-loss measurements in the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) Nb₃Sn strand and ITER design subsize cable samples. The test facility described below includes the set of superconducting magnet systems furnished with boil-off calorimetric inserts and calorimetric schemes including gas-flow meters. The calorimetric method and the magnetization loop recording method were used simultaneously for the AC-loss measurements. The coincidence between the results of both measuring techniques was confirmed. The original calorimetric scheme makes it possible to measure the released energy during one pulse of the magnet field. The results of AC loss measurements in ITER subsize conductor samples manufactured in Russia are given as an example.     

Energy losses in a thin-wall tube multifilament composite superconductor carrying a transport current in a time-varying transverse magnetic field

An approach and formulae are given to calculate the hysteresis, coupling, eddy-current and Ohmic losses in a thin-wall tube multifilament composite superconductor carrying a transport current under low excitation by a homogeneous transverse time-varying magnetic field, taking into account possible filament saturation and current sharing effects. The technique can be applied to a single layer superconducting cable twisted around a thin-wall normal conducting tube.     

大型超导电缆交流损耗的计算

给出了超导电缆交流损耗的表达式。使用这些表达式 ,并基于 HT- 7U极向场线圈系统在等离子体建立时的电流波形 ,计算了 AC损耗在 PF导体上的能量沉积。最后讨论了电缆参数对AC损耗的影响     

非金属低温杜瓦装置的研制

报道了一种非金属杜瓦装置的研制,以满足高温超导磁悬浮车系统对液氮低温容器的要求。这种长方体低温容器采用无磁非金属材料制备,从而可以避免由涡流导致的阻力和热损耗,以及由磁性导致的吸引力等不利于高温超导磁悬浮车系统的影响。容器的液氮损耗率为0.55L/h。综合性能测试表明,该非金属杜瓦可以作为高温超导磁浮车低温容器的理想选择之一。     

超导磁约束系统中超导磁体涡流损耗的研究

在超导磁约束系统中,超导磁体与射频场、磁场、声场、电场等复合场的兼容耦合是系统稳定运行的关键。探讨了在13.56 MHz频率下的Shoji型天线产生的高频电磁波对超导磁体的影响,高频电磁波会在超导磁体表面产生涡流损耗,进而产生功率损耗并生成热量,导致超导磁体失超。为避免失超现象的发生,在超导磁体室温孔内采用金属屏蔽层进行防护。利用COMSOL软件对整个电磁-射频非线性耦合场进行建模仿真分析,完成了屏蔽层结构的优化选择。基于计算结果,分析讨论了屏蔽层厚度和高度变化对超导磁体上涡流损耗功率的变化影响。通过对超导磁体涡流损耗功率随屏蔽层参数变化进行拟合,最终得到了优化后的屏蔽层参数。     

High-Tc superconductors and AC loss in electrotechnical devices

To replace conventional normal conducting solutions in electrotechnical devices, high-T_c superconductors must offer distinct economical and technical benefits in terms of lower overall loss, volume and weight. Based on AC loss theory we design appropriate 50 Hz reference conductors for cables, transformers and other applications, calculate admissible limits for the conductor variables filament diameter, twist and matrix resistance and compare this to the present state of Bi-2223-tape conductors and AC loss measurements. Further the influence of perpendicular AC field components on losses is addressed. High current devices will require multistrand conductors, where nonuniform current distribution due to unbalanced magnetic coupling may result in partial saturation and enhanced losses. As an example we discuss the multilayer HTSC-cable and present a solution based on a ‘zero flux condition' for azimuthal and axial magnetic fields.     

Frequency dependence of AC loss in Bi(2223)Ag-sheathed tapes

The AC self-field loss in Bi(2223)Ag-sheathed tapes with different number of filaments has been measured between 59 and 2500 Hz by means of a dual lock-in amplifier. Due to the wide frequency range of the measurements, we have been able to dissociate quantitatively the different self-field loss contributions: hysteretic, eddy current and resistive loss (near I_c). This is an important advantage compared to single frequency measurements where such loss dissociation is only qualitative. The hysteresis losses of the different tapes fall between Norris' predictions for elliptical and strip cross-section. The relative weight of eddy current loss is found to be inversely proportional to the current ratio—the higher the i, the less is their contribution. Frequency-independent resistive loss due to flux-creep is observed for high currents at low frequencies; this loss becomes quickly negligible with the increasing frequency.     

Single-phase AC losses in prototype HTS conductors for superconducting power transmission lines

We report single-phase AC loss measurements on 8-, 4-, and 3-layer, multi-strand, HTS prototype conductors for power transmission lines. We use both calorimetric and electrical techniques. The agreement between the two techniques suggests that the interlayer current distribution in 1-m long conductors are representative of those in long conductors. The losses for the 8- and 4-layer conductors are in rough agreement, with the 8-layer losses being somewhat lower. The 3-layer conductor losses are substantially higher — probably due to unbalanced azimuthal currents for this configuration.     

AC loss in a high-temperature superconducting coil

In a typical superconducting coil made of BSCCO/Ag tape, both amplitude and direction of the magnetic field determine the critical current, resistive voltage and AC loss. The distribution of the magnetic field along and across the superconducting tape in a coil is rather complex. This gives rise to the question: how accurate can one predict the critical current, V–I characteristic and AC loss of the AC coil from results of short sample measurements? To answer this question, we have measured and compared the characteristics of a short sample and a small coil employing 14 m of the same tape at 77 K. The comparison is performed as follows. First, a short sample is characterised with regard to the field dependence of the critical current, V–I characteristic and the AC loss. Second, the distribution of the magnetic field along the tape in a coil is accurately calculated. From the data, the voltage along the tape and the loss of the tape in the coil are found. Finally, the resistive voltage and the AC loss of the complete coil are calculated and compared to measured AC losses in the frequency range of 0 to 160 Hz, typical for power applications.     

Eddy current losses of cylindrical conductors rotating in a magnetic field

The eddy current lossesP in a conducting hollow circular cylinder slowly rotating in a homogeneous magnetic field perpendicular to its axis are calculated for an arbitrary lengthl and an arbitrary ratio λ of the inner and outer cylinder radii. The results allow an electrodeless resistivity determination of such samples by torque measurements. To facilitate this and other applications, simple approximations forP(l) are given for a set of λ-values.     

Transient stability of AC multi-strand superconducting cables

AC application, it is necessary to estimate the stability of multi-strand superconducting cable. Therefore, we have been studying the transient stability of non-insulated multi-strand cable when one strand in a cable turns into the normal state locally. In the quench process, local temperature rise produced by current redistribution among strands is not desirable for stability. In a previous work, we discussed the effect of Cu matrix allocated to each strand on the transient stability and showed that the Cu matrix allocation can improve the stability of non-insulated multi-strand cable through mainly numerical simulations. In this paper, we carried out experiments on three kinds of non-insulated three-strand cables; one consists of NbTi/CuNi strands and the others consist of NbTi/Cu/CuNi strands having different cross-sectional arrangement. These sample strands have almost the same diameter, the same matrix to superconductor ratio and the same B–J characteristics to evaluate the effect of Cu allocation quantitatively. We choose to define the transient stability in terms of the minimum quench energy (MQE) at each DC transport current. We also investigated the transient stability of sample cables when quench is initiated in two or three (all) strands simultaneously.     

AC losses in BiPbSrCaCuO-2223/Ag multifilamentary tapes in conditions similar to those in superconducting transmission lines

Transport AC losses in BiPbSrCaCuO-2223/Ag multifilamentary tape with 19 filaments were measured. The sample was 1.05 m long, wound in form of a helix with a gap between the tapes comparable with the tape width. Two different types of potential leads—tape following, axis following—with taps positioned in the centre of the tape were mounted on inner as well as outer surface of the helical sample. AC losses were measured at power frequencies by an electrical method using a lock-in nanovoltmeter. The influence of potential wires arrangement and the potential taps position on measured AC loss level and its frequency dependence was analysed.     

The similarities in loss creation in LTS and HTS cables

The coupling current losses represent an essential contribution to AC losses in most practical superconducting conductors. The origin of this loss type is well known, being caused by induced currents in different loops consisting of superconducting and non-superconducting parts. However, the ‘current pattern' in different conductor types (strands, flat or round cables, more complicated cable structures, CICC) varies appreciably. These differences are mainly due to geometrical effects (size and shape of filaments and/or strands, their spatial distribution, conductor aspect ratio, demagnetization effects). Although the general knowledge about AC losses in low temperature cable structures is by far not complete (mainly at higher frequencies, in inhomogeneous fields and for inhomogeneous cable structure), an attempt is made to summarize those results which can be adopted to high T_c conductors and some remarks are made about new features of AC losses in these conductor types.     

Computation of AC losses in high-temperature superconductors

A formulation for the computation of AC losses in technical HTS conductors by using commercial FEM packages developed for two-dimensional computation of electromagnetic problems is presented. The formulation takes into account the real current density–electric field characteristic of a conductor and the spatial dependence of the current density. Having presented the formulation, example runs comparing transport current loss behaviour between HTS and LTS conductors are given.     

Comparison between self-field AC losses of a single-phase Bi-2223 cable measured by electric and calorimetric methods

High-T_c power cables based on Bi-2223 tapes are under development worldwide. An important parameter for design and cost optimization is the AC loss expected during 50/60 Hz operation. Its measurement can be affected by several experimental problems that may alter the results. For this purpose, the 50 Hz losses of a 1.5 m long conductor, made by helically winding four layers of Bi-2223 tapes, were measured simultaneously by electrical and calorimetric methods in a wide range of currents up to 2 kA in order to investigate the reasons for possible discrepancies. The present, specifically designed, calorimetric system is not based on temperature distribution analysis but on the measurement of the gas boil-off rate of the liquid nitrogen bath.     

高温超导带材交流损耗的数值计算与分析

高温超导带材在许多领域得到越来越广泛的应用。交流损耗计算对于高温超导带材具有重要意义。该文介绍了两种交流损耗的数值计算模型,并以其中一种模型为例,对带材的交流损耗进行计算,与Norris公式计算结果作了比较,证明结果有效。最后提出了交流损耗数值计算中存在的问题。     

Calculating transport AC losses in stacks of high temperature superconductor coated conductors with magnetic substrates using FEM

In this paper, the authors investigate the electromagnetic properties of stacks of high temperature superconductor (HTS) coated conductors with a particular focus on calculating the total transport AC loss. The cross-section of superconducting cables and coils is often modeled as a two-dimensional stack of coated conductors, and these stacks can be used to estimate the AC loss of a practical device. This paper uses a symmetric two dimensional (2D) finite element model based on the H formulation, and a detailed investigation into the effects of a magnetic substrate on the transport AC loss of a stack is presented. The number of coated conductors in each stack is varied from 1 to 150, and three types of substrate are compared: non-magnetic weakly magnetic and strongly magnetic. The non-magnetic substrate model is comparable with results from existing models for the limiting cases of a single tape (Norris) and an infinite stack (Clem). The presence of a magnetic substrate increases the total AC loss of the stack, due to an increased localized magnetic flux density, and the stronger the magnetic material, the further the flux penetrates into the stack overall. The AC loss is calculated for certain tapes within the stack, and the differences and similarities between the losses throughout the stack are explained using the magnetic flux penetration and current density distributions in those tapes. The ferromagnetic loss of the substrate itself is found to be negligible in most cases, except for small magnitudes of current. Applying these findings to practical applications, where AC transport current is involved, superconducting coils should be wound where possible using coated conductors with a non-magnetic substrate to reduce the total AC loss in the coil.