Cryogenic Heat Pipe for Cooling High-Temperature Superconducting Coils

Abstract

An emerging method of propellantless formation flight is the use of electromagnets coupled with reaction wheels called electromagnetic formation flight. To create a large magnetic field necessary for actuating formation-flying spacecraft, electromagnetic formation flight uses high-temperature superconducting wire. To achieve superconductivity, the high-temperature superconducting wire requires a consumable-free cryogenic thermal control system to maintain the wire temperature below the critical temperature throughout the entire electromagnetic formation-flight coil, which could be as large as 2 m in diameter. The research in this paper investigates a consumable-free method of maintaining isothermalization for a large-scale high-temperature superconducting coil. The high-temperature superconducting coil resides inside a thermally conductive jacket that is used for isothermalization. Both a solid conductor and a heat pipe were investigated for use as the thermally conductive jacket. In this paper, a proof-of-concept circular cryogenic heat pipe was tested in a 2-m-diam toroidal vacuum chamber. This system showed the potential for high-temperature superconducting cooling. The experiments in this paper demonstrate the feasibility of operating large high-temperature superconducting coils for future formation-flying missions.