Design, fabrication and testing of superconducting DC reactor for 1.2 kV/80 A inductive fault current limiter

A superconducting DC reactor protects a power system by limiting the amplitude of fault current with its inductance. Therefore, it is very important to design and simulate the DC reactor precisely for making the power system stable and effective. In this paper, we designed the superconducting DC reactor of an inductive superconducting fault current limiter conceptually and acquired the optimal design parameters by using Finite Element Method (FEM). We manufactured the superconducting DC reactor and tested its characteristics at cryocooler-cooled 20 K temperature. Moreover, we compared experimental characteristics with simulation results and analyzed them. We introduced the design method of the superconducting DC reactor and the fabrication method of a 1.2 kV/80 A class DC reactor for an inductive superconducting fault current limiter. Finally, we performed the short circuit test and discussed the results.