Charging Behavior in No-Insulation REBCO Pancake Coils

Abstract

This paper presents analytical studies on the charging characteristics of a no-insulation (NI) REBCO pancake coil. A partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) model has been developed to evaluate the local current paths in NI REBCO pancake coils. The PEEC model is able to consider the asymmetry of the coil winding, the partial turn-to-turn contact electrical resistance, and the partial self and mutual inductances. The analysis results are compared with previous charging experimental results and simulations using a simplified parallel equivalent circuit (SPEC) model to validate the proposed approach with the PEEC model. To investigate the charging characteristics of a meter-class NI REBCO pancake coil, numerical simulations were performed by using the PEEC and SPEC models as a parameter of the turn-to-turn contact electrical resistance. In addition, the magnetic field in a 3-T NI REBCO coil was calculated by the SPEC model to clarify the charging delay of a practical scale magnet.