Current limiting characteristics of a resistance-inductance type superconducting fault current limiter

Abstract

The superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) can effectively and quickly limit the fault current, which is appropriate for the voltage source converter high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) transmission system to reduce the fault current. A new resistance-inductance type SFCL using the structure of the inductive superconducting coils is presented. The current limiting and inter-turn insulation characteristics of resistance-inductance type SFCL are studied. A simulation model is developed for the comparison of inductive and non-inductive type superconducting coils. The simulation results show that the inductive superconducting coils can significantly reduce the fault current rise rate by more than 42% over the non-inductive superconducting coils. The voltage distribution of the inter-turn channels is calculated by the presented method.Utilizing the voltage distribution, the electric field distribution can be obtained, which is important for the insulation design. Some inductive type pancake superconducting coils were fabricated, and the DC impulse current tests were carried out. The testing results and simulated results have a good agreement, which shows that the inductive type SFCL can effectively limit the fault current.