A Contactless Self-Regulating HTS Flux Pump

Abstract

A series of high temperature superconducting (HTS) flux pumps have been developed to achieve the persistent current mode (PCM) operation for HTS magnets. However, most of the HTS flux pumps work with a small operating air gap, or with an iron core, the extra heat load brought by the conventional components deployed in the cryogenic environment is inevitable. To address this problem, in this study, in conjunction with the wireless power transfer (WPT) approach and transformer-rectifier type HTS flux pump, we have proposed a contactless self-regulating HTS flux pump. A circuit model and a 2D H-formulation finite-element model have been built for better understanding this system. Furthermore, a basic prototype was proposed to experimentally validate this concept. The measured results indicate that this method has the potential to charge the HTS magnet with all the conventional constituents outside the cryostat, and the operating frequency could be very low to evade inducing large eddy current as well as losses on the cryostat wall.