Generation High Temperature Superconducting Tapes Research Articles

Experimental investigation of axial tensile and fatigue behaviors of HTS round strands

For the development of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet systems of future fusion devices, a novel HTS round strand based on a stacking structure was designed and manufactured using second generation (2G) HTS tapes. Different mechanical loads during operation can result in irreversible degradation of the strand. The axial tension and fatigue loads need particular attention. Therefore, it is important to investigate the electromechanical behavior of the round strand under various axial tension and cyclic loads. In this paper, the axial tensile and fatigue tests were conducted at 77 K, self-field. Taking 95% critical current (Ic) retention as the criterion, the results of the tensile tests revealed that the average tensile stress and strain were as high as 344 MPa and 0.47%, respectively. Fatigue characteristics were also investigated as a function of axial tensile stress. No significant performance degradation was observed up to 100,000 loading cycles with stress amplitudes ranging from 20 MPa to 200 MPa. Ic degradation occurs after 16,000 loading cycles with 380 MPa as the maximum stress. Furthermore, the microscopic defects of the round strand samples due to fabrication imperfections and mechanical loading were investigated using metallographic microscope and scanning electron microscope. These results presented in this paper are useful for comprehending and improving the mechanical behaviors of the strand in high-field and large-scale fusion magnet systems.

Lamination process of second generation high temperature superconducting tape at Shanghai Superconductor Technology

As the second generation high temperature superconducting (HTS) tape enters the stage of commercialization and mass production, it has been successfully applied in several power and magnet devices. Different application scenarios also put forward different requirements for the electrical and mechanical properties of the HTS tape. This paper focuses on introducing the post-processing treatments of HTS tape, primarily copper plating and lamination. By preparing typical samples, the properties of copper-plated tapes and laminated tapes have been experimentally compared. The results show that under the condition of sufficient liquid nitrogen flow, the steady-state over-current tolerance of copper-laminated tape is significantly better than that of stainless steel-laminated and copper-plated tapes. At the same room temperature resistance, the over-current impact tolerance of stainless steel-laminated tape is 2–3 times that of copper-plated tape; the maximum transient current beared by the tapes reached 3896 A when they were put under shock for 8 ms, which has significant advantages in the application of resistive fault current limiter. At 77 K, yield strength Rp0.2 of the three types of superconducting tapes are > 1100 MPa for stainless steel-laminated tape, 645–1037 MPa for copper-plated tape and < 500 MPa for copper-laminated tape. The critical tensile stress of stainless steel laminated-tape is higher than that of copper-plated tape and copper-laminated tape. The tape reinforced structure described in this paper can provide a helpful reference for future design and manufacture of superconducting applications in power and magnet industries.

Characterizations of a Novel Structure of Fault-Tolerant HTS Cable

This paper presents a type of high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable, which is fabricated by winding the second generation (2G) HTS tapes on round former consisting of stranded stainless steel (SS) wires. It has the advantages of strong flexibility, high mechanical strength, and high engineering current density. With taking the resistivity of SS much larger than that of copper or aluminum, the cable has higher resistance and strength than the conventional HTS cable with former made from copper strands at condition of fault accident. After the configuration of the cable is designed in detail, the quenching resistance and fault current limiting are numerically analyzed. We fabricate a model cable and carry out the experiment of fault current. The experimental results show that the quenching resistance of this cable is much higher than the resistance of conventional underground XLPE cable and overhead conductor, which indicates that the proposed cable has a strong ability of fault current limiting and can be applicable in HTS devices with functions of fault current limiting such HTS cable, transformer, motor/generator, and current limiter.

Development and Test of One Commercial Megawatt Superconducting DC Induction Heater With Extra High Energy Efficiency

Energy conservation and emission reduction is a critical task for China's aluminum industry. During the last decade, the high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology has been successfully demonstrated to have great potential for energy conservation in this field. Different from the present AC induction heater, this HTS direct current (DC) induction heater is expected to significantly improve the energy efficiency of preheating aluminium billets before extrusion process. This paper thoroughly presents the development of the world's first commercial megawatt HTS DC inducting heater based on 2nd generation HTS tapes. Firstly, the commercial design of this 1MW HTS DC induction heater including design specifications, energy efficiency and commercial potential are analyzed carefully. Subsequently, the manufacture and operation of three core parts including HTS magnet with extra-large diameter, iron core structure and electrical driving system, are introduced. A low cost and practical driving system consisting of motors and gearboxes is developed to solve the problem of peak electromagnetic torque at low rotation. Meanwhile, the heating quality of aluminium billets (i.e., temperature distribution along the radial and axial direction) can be accurately controlled by an adjustable air gap structure. Finally, the present technique challenges and corresponding solutions of this commercial HTS DC induction heaters are summarized and proposed. Compared with an energy efficiency of 45-60% in the MW-class conventional heater, the energy efficiency of this HTS DC induction heater can achieve up to 80.6% based on test results. This work can also provide guidance for the design and optimization of HTS DC induction heaters.

Numerical Simulation and Experiment of AC Loss in Quasi-Isotropic Superconducting Strand

With the development of REBCO coated conductor (CC), the high temperature superconducting (HTS) strand with high current capacity and quasi-isotropic performance is expected to have a wide application. However, the alternating current (AC) loss is one of the major obstacles. This paper aims to study the AC loss of the quasi-isotropic strand stacked by the second generation (2G) HTS tapes and copper tapes at 77 K. In order to fully understand AC loss characteristics of the stacked-tape conductor, an efficient 3D finite element method (FEM) model based on T-A formulation was adopted in this simulation. The transport AC loss was measured by four-probe method using SR-830 lock-in amplifier at liquid nitrogen (LN2) bath. Moreover, the amplitude and frequency of transport current were also varied in this experiment. The simulation results are consistent with the experiment which is helpful for studying the AC loss of the quasi-isotropic strand.

Superconducting state stability in second generation high-temperature superconducting wires with varying copper stabilizer thickness under AC overcurrent conditions

Superconducting state stability in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires is of great importance for the reliable operation of superconducting electric power equipment. To this end, a study was made of the steady state operation and transients under AC current overloading in second generation (2G) HTS tape wires with a copper stabilizing layer of varying thickness. The existence of a threshold stabilizer thickness has been found, such that determines the HTS tape I-V curve and transients when an overcritical current flows. If the current exceeds the critical value, primary instability takes place in a wire with no stabilizer layer as well as with a layer of any thickness. In a wire with the stabilizer thickness less than the threshold level, an irreversible superconducting-to-normal transition occurs. However, if the copper layer thickness exceeds the threshold thickness, the HTS wire stable overloaded state recovers after some transients that have an irregular oscillation shape. The recovery of the stable thermal state under overcurrent conditions in HTS wires with an over-threshold stabilizer thickness is applicable in a variety of superconducting electric power devices, such as transformers and current limiters with a high capability to withstand faults. The measurements also show that the loss of superconductivity under AC overcritical current is followed by the phase angle changing between voltage and current. This phenomenon could be used for fast response normal zone detection in current-carrying conductors of superconducting equipment.

Progress in fabrication of second generation high temperature superconducting tape at Shanghai Superconductor Technology

The development and application of second generation high temperature superconducting (2G-HTS) tapes have attracted much attention in China recently. Progress in upscaling high performance 2G-HTS tape production at Shanghai Superconductor Technology (SST) is reported in this paper. With ion beam assisted deposition, biaxially textured buffer layers with a configuration of CeO2/LaMnO3/MgO/Y2O3/Al2O3/C-276 have successfully been fabricated. In-plane and out-of-plane texture degrees of CeO2 films achieve 2°–4° and 2°, respectively. A multi-plume multi-turn pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system combined with the so-called ‘radiation assisted conductive heater’ has been proposed and further developed for REBCO layer deposition. Our effort was focused on minimizing the temperature variations in the deposition region by modifying the heating shield that assists the conductive heater of the drum-like cylinder. A tape travelling speed of 100–180 m h−1 can be achieved with a steady temperature profile when passing through the deposition zone, which is very beneficial for the growth of the REBCO layer. Taking advantage of the liquid phase growth mode, several compositions of superconducting films with a thickness in the range of 1–2.5 μm have been grown with high growth rates of over 40 nm s−1. Furthermore, the microstructures and superconducting performance were investigated in detail. Based on these studies, superconducting tapes with piece lengths of up to 500 meters have been developed. High Ic values at 77 K, self-field (over 520 A cm−1 width) or at low temperature, high magnetic field conditions (over 560 A/4 mm width at 4.2 K, 10 T, perpendicular field) have been achieved. Lamination and jointing techniques have also been developed by SST for power and magnet applications.

Out-of-plane bending characteristics of second generation high temperature superconducting tapes

REBCO tapes, known as second generation (2G) high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes, are promising for their application in high field magnets and high current cables. However, in practical applications 2G HTS tapes always need to be bent, which causes the degradation of critical current. Therefore, it is necessary to study the bending characteristics of 2G HTS tapes. Studies have been carried out regarding easy bending and hard bending characteristics, but there has been no research into the characteristics of out-of-plane bending with different bending angles. This paper theoretically analyzes the out-of-plane bending with different bending angle characteristics of 2G HTS tapes and deduces the strain formula of different bending modes. Experiments on the bending characteristics of 2G HTS tapes were performed in liquid nitrogen. The experiments verified the theoretical calculation, and the results have significance for the applications of 2G HTS tapes.

Magnetic shielding characteristics of hybrid high temperature superconductor/ferromagnetic material multilayer shields

Magnetic shielding characteristics of hybrid shields consisting of second generation high-temperature superconducting tapes and ferromagnetic materials are presented. Shields with multiple layers with several combinations of superconducting and ferromagnetic materials showed interesting patterns. Shielding factors as high as 95% are observed for three-layer hybrid shielding structures. The data presented offers new ways to achieve the required shielding factors in a given application with minimal use of expensive superconductors.

Testing of machine wound second generation HTS tape Vacuum Pressure Impregnated coils

Delamination of second generation (2G) High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) tapes has previously been reported when using resin based insulation systems for wound coils. One proposed root cause is the differential thermal contraction between the coil former and the resin encapsulated coil turns resulting in the tape c-axis tensile stress being exceeded. Importantly, delamination results in unacceptable degradation of the superconductor critical current level. To mitigate the delamination risk and prove winding, jointing and Vacuum Pressure Impregnation (VPI) processes in the production of coils for superconducting rotating machines at GE Power Conversion two scaled trial coils have been wound and extensively tested. The coils are wound from 12mm wide 2G HTS tape supplied by AMSC onto stainless steel 'racetrack' coil formers. The coils are wound in two layers which include both in-line and layer-layer joints subject to in-process test. The resin insulation system chosen is VPI and oven cured. Tests included; insulation resistance, repeat quench and recovery of the superconductor, heat runs and measurement of n-value, before and after multiple thermal cycling between ambient and 35 Kelvin. No degradation of coil performance is evidenced.

Temporal resistance variation of the second generation HTS tape during superconducting-to-normal state transition

BackgroundThe quench process in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires plays an important role in superconducting power devices, such as fault current limiters, magnets, cables, etc. The superconducting device should survive after the overheating due to quench.MethodsWe studied the evolution of the resistance of the YBCO tape wire during the quench process with 1 ms time resolution for various excitation voltages.FindingsThe resistive normal zone was found to be located in a domain of about 1-4 cm long. The normal state nucleation begins in 40-60 ms after voltage is applied across the HTS tape. In subsequent 200-300 ms other normal state regions appear. The normal domain heating continues in the following 5-10s that results in a factor of 2–3 increase of its resistance.ConclusionsFormation of the normal domain during the quench process follows the same stages for different excitation voltages. Characteristic domain sizes, lifetimes and temperatures are determined for all stages.

A Comparative Study on Hysteresis Losses in High $T_{ \rm c}$ Tapes for Superconducting Fault Current Limiter Applications

Hysteresis loss is an important parameter of high-temperature superconductors while designing inductive type superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs). Furthermore, in high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes, the major part of the magnetic field in a coil configuration is parallel to the tape face. To optimize the design of an SFCL based on HTS, the hysteresis losses should be minimum at the operating temperature and current. Therefore, we investigated M-H curves for Bi2223-based 1st generation (1G) and YBCO-based 2nd generation (2G) HTS tapes in magnetic fields applied parallel and perpendicular to the tape surface to obtain hysteresis losses. The temperature (35-77 K) and magnetic field (0-3 T) dependence of hysteresis loss and critical current together are analyzed for both 1G and 2G HTS tapes to assess their applicability to SFCL.

Selection Criteria of High ${\rm T}_{\rm c}$ Superconducting Tapes for Superconducting Fault Current Limiter Applications

To establish a selection criterion of high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes for their possible application in superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs), it is required to have high critical current density, high `n' value, high normal state resistance, low AC losses, large heat transfer area, high thermal diffusivity and quick recovery against thermal instabilities for the HTS tapes. At present HTS tapes are categorized into two types namely Bi2223 based 1st generation (1G) HTS tape and YBCO based 2nd generation (2G) coated conductors (CCs). These 1G and 2G tapes are composite tapes. Hence, it is required to know their averaged material properties that can affect the performance of the SFCL during normal state operation. This paper deals with these issues along with DC characterization results to establish selection criteria of HTS tapes for SFCL applications.

The I$_{\rm c}$ Behavior of 2G YBCO Tapes Under DC/AC Magnetic Fields at Various Temperatures

In order to design a High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) machine that is able to operate safely and reliably, studies on the characterization of Second Generation (2G) HTS tapes are of paramount importance. This paper presents an experimental setup to measure critical current of 2G HTS tapes in high DC magnetic fields (up to 5 Tesla) with an AC current ripple superimposed, as well as various temperatures ranging from 25 K to 77 K. The 2G tape measured is the SGS12050 coated conductor made by SuperPower. The critical current is measured by a flux vector with reference to the widest sample face from 0 to 90 degrees in 10 degree steps. Smaller steps are required close to 0°. A Variable Temperature Insert (VTI) is utilized to control temperature change.

Peculiarities of magnetization of second generation high-temperature superconducting tapes in a wide temperature range

We present the results of study of magnetization and critical current of coated conductors with magnetic and nonmagnetic substrates. The measurements of magnetization curves were done in a wide temperature range from 4,2 to 100 K and magnetic field up to 14 T. To determine the dependence of transport critical current on the magnetic field we measured a set of current-voltage characteristics in the range of magnetic field from 0 to 8 T at T = 77 K with perpendicular to the tape field orientation. It was obtained that the substrates magnetism dramatically changes the form of magnetization curves but not influence the value of critical current. Comparison of field dependence of critical current, obtained by contact and contactless method at T = 77 K shows that for both samples is observed coincidence of the curves at low fields and a strong divergence at H> 1 Tesla.

Basic concepts, status, opportunities, and challenges of electrical machines utilizing high-temperature superconducting (HTS) windings

An overview of the different approaches towards achieving a marketable application of a superconducting electrical machine, either as synchronous motor or generator, will be given. This field ranges from relatively small industrial drives to utility generators with large power ratings, from the low speed and high torque of wind power generators and ship propulsion motors, to high speed generators attached to turbines. Essentially HTS machine technology offers several advantages such as compactness (weight and volume reduction), increased efficiency, and other operational benefits. The machine features have to be optimized with regard to the specific application, and different concepts were developed by internationally competing teams, with Siemens being one of them. The achieved status in these fields will be summarized, pointing to the specific technical challenges to overcome. For this purpose we have not only to consider the technology of manufacturing the HTS rotor winding itself, but also to check requirements and availability of supporting technologies. This ranges from new challenges posed to the non-superconducting ("conventional") components of such innovative HTS machines, manufacturing superconducting material in the coming transition from 1st to 2nd generation HTS tape, cryogenic technology including material behavior, to new and challenging tasks in simulating and predicting the performance of such machines by computational tools. The question of market opportunities for this technology obviously is a function of all these aspects; however, a strong tendency for the near future is seen in the area of high-torque ship propulsion.