Protection of superconducting wires and cables used in high power/high field applications

保护高功率/高场应用中使用的超导线材和电缆

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-06687
• 负责人: Sirois, Frédéric
• 金额: $ 3.28万
• 依托单位: École Polytechnique de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=710358
• 关键词: Protection; superconducting; wires; cables; used

Superconducting materials have the unique property of carrying lossless DC currents below a given critical current (Ic) and critical temperature (Tc). Superconductors considered in this proposal are called “High Temperature Superconductors” (HTS), because they exhibit superconductivity above liquid nitrogen temperature, i.e. 77 K (-196oC), a cheap coolant that is affordable in large-scale applications such as power devices. HTS wires come in the form of flat tapes and can carry amazingly high current densities, e.g. >2 MA/cm2 at 77 K. They are perfect for applications such as high field electromagnets, which allow reaching unprecedented field values, e.g. up to 50 T at 4 K. This could be a game changer in high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear fusion, particle accelerators, etc. Also, since magnets typically require hundreds of kilometers of HTS tapes, they are expected to be the big market “driver” sought for scaling-up the production and reduce costs of HTS wires in a near future. The biggest challenge with superconducting devices is to protect them reliably against thermal instabilities that can destroy them rapidly. In this proposal, we propose to expand the application range of a concept discovered within my research group and that is called “current flow diverter” (CFD). This concept allows speed-up by an order of magnitude the propagation of a thermal instability when it occurs, which considerably simplifies the protection of HTS devices, in particular HTS magnets. It is seen as a potential breakthrough in the discipline, and therefore deserves serious consideration in the short term. The technology was awarded a U.S. patent in May 2015, and further I.P. could arise form short-term research, with potentially wide market if it penetrates the MRI market. Within this project, the following main objectives will be pursued: 1) Find an effective and economical approach to implement the current flow diverter (CFD) concept on long lengths of commercial HTS tapes 2) Understand the impact of a hot spot nucleation in high-current cables made of many HTS tapes (e.g. Roebel or TASC cables) under various experimental conditions 3) Evaluate the impact of using the CFD concept combined with state-of-the-art protection systems for HTS magnets These objectives are aligned with the ultimate goal of my research program, which is to “allow the emergence of a new generation of compact and efficient superconducting devices for improving security of supply in power systems and enable the emergence of high field HTS magnets”. Along the project, it is planned to train 3 Ph.D. students, 5 Master's student, and 5 summer interns. Some parts of the project will be carried out with international partners in order to take advantage of existing infrastructures and speed-up the generation of research results.

超导材料具有在给定临界电流（Ic）和临界温度（Tc）以下承载无损直流电流的独特特性，该提案中考虑的超导体被称为“高温超导体”（HTS），因为它们在液氮温度以上表现出超导性。 ，即 77 K (-196oC)，是一种廉价的冷却剂，在功率器件等大规模应用中可以承受，采用扁平带和形式。可以承载惊人的高电流密度，例如 77 K 时 >2 MA/cm2。它们非常适合高磁场电磁体等应用，可达到前所未有的磁场值，例如 4 K 时高达 50 T。用于高分辨率磁共振成像 (MRI)、核聚变、粒子加速器等。此外，由于磁体通常需要数百公里的高温超导磁带，因此预计它们将成为巨大的市场寻求在不久的将来扩大高温超导线的生产规模并降低成本的“驱动者”，超导器件面临的最大挑战是可靠地保护它们免受可能迅速破坏它们的热不稳定性的影响。我的研究小组发现的一个概念的应用范围，称为“电流分流器”（CFD），这个概念可以在热不稳定性发生时将其传播速度加快一个数量级，从而大大简化了保护。 HTS 设备，特别是 HTS 磁体，被视为该学科的潜在突破，因此在短期内值得认真考虑，该技术于 2015 年 5 月获得了美国专利，并且短期研究可能会产生进一步的知识产权。如果它渗透到MRI市场，则具有潜在广阔的市场。 在该项目中，将实现以下主要目标： 1) 找到一种有效且经济的方法，在长长度的商用高温超导带上实施分流器 (CFD) 概念 2) 了解在各种实验条件下由多种高温超导带（例如 Roebel 或 TASC 电缆）制成的高电流电缆中热点成核的影响 3) 评估使用 CFD 概念与最先进的高温超导磁体保护系统的影响 这些目标与我的研究计划的最终目标是一致的，即“出现新一代紧凑高效的超导器件，以提高电力系统的供电安全性，并实现高场高温超导磁体的出现”。 该项目计划培养 3 名博士生、5 名硕士生和 5 名暑期实习生，以利用现有基础设施并加快项目进度。研究成果的产生。