Coil Voltage Pulse at the Beginning of the Fast Discharge Operation of No-Insulation REBCO Coils

Abstract

This paper presents a study on the coil voltage of the no-insulation (NI) high-temperature superconductor (HTS) pancake coils during fast discharging operations. Fast discharging tests are performed on both a double pancake (DP) and an single pancake (SP) NI coil. The measured coil voltages are compared with that from an equivalent circuit model, which has been widely used in previous studies. A voltage pulse is observed on both the NI coils at the beginning of the fast-discharging operation. It is much higher than that from the modeling. The peak value of the voltage pulse increases linearly with the initial current. Comparison tests show that the coupling iron core has little influence on this coil voltage pulse though the inductance of the coils is enlarged seven times by coupling iron core. This coil voltage pulse shows that, during the fast discharging operation, the NI coil has a much higher turn-to-turn resistivity at the beginning stage than that in following process. Since the coil voltage pulse can be 600 times of the modeling estimation, it may be a potential risk to the coil protection system and measuring instruments. Therefore, special attentions are required on this aspect in the design of NI magnets.