Low bending rippled structure design and frictional energy disturbance analysis for superconductive magnet energy storage

Friction between the structure and conductor is the largest potential thermal disturbance to superconductive magnetic energy storage (SMES) conductors. Direct calculation of the disturbance is difficult because input assumptions on friction coefficients and slippage distances are not reliable for a stick-slip occurrence. A general approach is presented in which the disturbance E_D is calculated as the difference in strain energy before and after slippage, which is independent of the friction coefficient and slippage details. The disturbance is found for the low bending ripple, circular ripple, and nonripple structures. The low bending ripple structure has a very small disturbance, approximately 2% of that for a nonripple structure