Thermal Analysis of a Conduction-Cooled HTS Coil With Heat Disturbances

Abstract

Heat disturbances, which are usually caused by nonuniformity of the conductor operating locally at overcritical currents or by resistive joints in the HTS coil, always lead to local increase in the temperature around the weak point. This may expose the coil to possible damage. Understanding the thermal behavior of the HTS coil is important when designing and operating a conduction-cooled HTS magnet. In this paper, thermal simulations were performed to analyze thermal response of the heat disturbances for a conduction-cooled HTS coil by using a model based on the heat conduction equation and solved using the finite element method. The coil is cooled by a cryocooler through a cooling plate. This study focused on the temperature profile in the coil and the heat transfer between the coil and the cooling plate. Based on the results, the issues related to thermal stability of the HTS coil are discussed.