Design and testing of a high temperature superconducting current lead

Author

Wu, J.L. ; Dederer, J.T. ; Eckels, P.W. ; Singh, S.K. ; Hull, J.R. ; Poeppel, R.B. ; Youngdahl, C.A. ; Singh, J.P. ; Lanagan, M.T. ; Balachandran, U.

Author_Institution

Westinghouse Sci. & Technol. Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

27

Issue

2

fYear

1991

fDate

3/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1861

Lastpage

1865

Abstract

The high critical temperature and low thermal conductivity of the ceramic superconductor Y-Ba-Cu-O were utilized to reduce the Joule heating and the heat leak in a vapor-cooled current lead design of nominally 1-kA capacity. The lead consists of a lower superconducting part and an upper normal metal (copper) part. The superconducting part is an assembly of 20 rectangular bars fabricated from a composite of Y-Ba-Cu-O and Ag (15% vol.). This part is designed to operate below the critical temperature of the ceramic superconductor. The copper part, consisting of 20 copper wires, extends outside of the cryostat and interfaces to the room-temperature power supply. The lead was successfully tested in a liquid-helium cryostat for currents up to 2 kA. At the optimum operating currents of 1.7-1.8 kA, the helium boil-off measurements show heat leak reduction of approximately 40% from the conventional designs. Details of the design, fabrication issues, and the testing are presented

Keywords

cable testing; copper compounds; high-temperature superconductors; superconducting cables; yttrium compounds; 1 to 2 kA; Joule heating; YBaCuO ceramic; fabrication; heat leak; high temperature superconducting current lead; testing; vapor-cooled current lead design; Assembly; Bars; Ceramics; Heating; High temperature superconductors; Power supplies; Superconducting filaments and wires; Testing; Thermal conductivity; Yttrium barium copper oxide;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.133559

Filename

133559