Recovery time analysis in a tri-axial HTS cable after an over-current fault

Abstract

A tri-axial HTS cable with the advantage of compact structure, low heat loss, and low cost is a perfect solution for future distribution power network demand. In our previous research, a typical single line to ground (SLG) fault simulation was carried out in an adiabatic condition. A stabilizer layer thickness design of the tri-axial HTS cable based on a calculation of maximum temperature rise in the worst condition was proposed. However, in practical application, after the quenched cable is removed from the network by a breaker, a recovery time is also a very important parameter to decide if the cable is allowed to reconnect to the power network. In this paper, a one-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is carried out to simulate the transient thermal behavior of the cable. The result shows that it takes time to recover the cable temperature to the steady-state operation level due to a low thermal conductivity of the insulation layer. Since the cable is cooled by forced liquid nitrogen (LN2) flow, there is a temperature gradient along the cable. The temperature of LN2 gradually rises after the fault until the warmed coolant runs out of the cable.