Hybrid Model of Quench Propagation in Coated Conductors Applied to Fault Current Limiter Design

In order to help in designing more compact fault current limiters based on coated conductors, we recently developed a hybrid model of the quench propagation in such conductors. This model combines the finite element method to study the thermal propagation and analytical calculation of heat generation. The results obtained with this model are in very good agreement with the experiments, without the need for using free parameters for adjustment. Simulations demonstrate that even slight variations of the conductor characteristics have great influence on the temperature profile along the tape during the limitation phase, due to the slow normal zone propagation velocity. 2-D parametric studies are conducted with the aim of improving the temperature uniformity by varying some characteristics of the layers of the coated conductors. 3-D simulations on a wider scale are conducted to demonstrate how the temperature uniformity could be improved further in fault current limiters by using adapted meander geometries.