A Miniaturized Conduction-Cooled HTS Magnet for Space Magnetoelectric Thruster

Abstract

Superconducting magnet is the key component used as the magnetic nozzle to improve the performance of the magnetoelectric thruster. Compared to the traditional copper or permanent magnet, it has high current density and uniform characteristics. Based on space application requirements of the magnetic nozzle for magnetoelectric thruster, a miniaturized high-temperature superconducting magnet structure is proposed in this article. The Stirling conduction-cooling method is used to replace the conventional GM cryocooler cooling method with a large compressor to realize the miniaturization of the magnet system. When the operating current is 1.5 times that of the maximum design current (40 A), the stability margin of the magnet is still more than 1000 mJ/cc. In addition, according to the calculation of ac loss, the magnet does not undergo quenching up until 254 Hz, which further demonstrates the safety and stability characteristics of the magnet. Finally, during a low-temperature (∼50 K) experiment, the magnet can maintain stable operation for more than 3 h while the temperature rise is less than 0.35 K, which confirms the feasibility of the miniaturized conduction-cooled scheme proposed in this article. This article lays a technical foundation for the future space application of high-power magnetoelectric propulsion systems.