Kagao Okumura

Study of practical applications of HTS synchronous Machines

A small research and study committee, composed of corporations in the industrial/governmental/academic fields, was established, and a feasibility study of HTS synchronous machines (HTSMs) was carried out. Promising application fields for HTSMs were considered and their applicability was studied. Fundamental designs of these HTSMs were then carried out using a specially developed design program, and their merits and demerits were clarified. As key components, HTS field coils and refrigeration systems were examined closely, and technological problems related to their development were studied.

Development of UPS-SMES as a protection from momentary voltage drop

We have been developing the UPS-SMES as a protection from momentary voltage drop and power failure. The superconducting system is suitable as electric power storage for large energy extraction in a short time. The most important feature of superconducting coil system for the UPS-SMES is easy handling and maintenance-free operation. We have selected low temperature superconducting (LTS) coils instead of high temperature superconducting (HTS) coils from the viewpoint of cost and performance. However, it is difficult for the conventional LTS coils to fulfill maintenance-free operation since the cooling methods are either pool boiling with liquid helium or forced flow of supercritical helium. Thus, a conduction cooled LTS pulse coil has been designed as a key component of the UPS-SMES. The development program of 1 MW, 1 sec UPS-SMES is explained.

Winding techniques for conduction cooled LTS pulse coils for 100 kJ class UPS-SMES as a protection from momentary voltage drops

In order to develop the 100 kJ class UPS-SMES as a protection from momentary voltage drops, design of the conduction cooled LTS pulse coil was carried out and special winding machine has been developed. Such coil is required to simultaneously attain low AC loss and high stability and the distributions of temperature in the coil are sensitively controlled. For this purpose, an aluminum stabilized conductor with circular cross-section composed of a Cu stabilized NbTi Rutherford cable was used as the winding conductor, and in the winding process the twist angle of the conductor around its axis was controlled to adjust the direction of edge-on orientation to the Rutherford cable to direction of local transverse magnetic fields applied to the conductor in winding area of the coil. The developed winding machine is used for this winding method. As a result, conduction cooled LTS pulse coil can be expected to operate stably in adequate temperature margin.

Summary of a 1 MJ Conduction-Cooled LTS Pulse Coil Developed for 1 MW, 1 s UPS-SMES

The development study of a 1 MJ conduction-cooled low temperature superconducting (LTS) pulse coil used for a 1 MW, 1 s UPS-SMES is summarized. We have developed a conduction-cooled LTS pulse coil as a key technology for the UPS-SMES. The AC loss reduction and the high stability are required for the SC conductor for a LTS pulse coil because of a limited cooling capacity of 4 K cryocooler. The conductor of a NbTi/Cu compacted strand cable extruded with an aluminum was designed to have the anisotropic AC loss properties to minimize the coupling loss. The coil was wound, utilizing a specially developed automatic winding machine which enables an innovative twist-winding method. The Dyneema FRP (DFRP) spacers and the Litz wires (braided wires of insulated copper strands) were inserted in each layer in order to enhance the heat transfer in the coil windings. The coil was installed in the test cryostat and was connected to three GM cryocoolers, which have a total cooling capacity of 4.5 W at 4 K and 240 W at 50 K. The coil was cooled conductively without liquid helium by attaching the end of the Litz wires directly to the cold heads of the cryocoolers. The cooling and excitation test of the 1 MJ coil has been done successfully. The test results validated the high performance of the conduction-cooled LTS pulse coil, because the high thermal diffusivity resulted in the rapid temperature stabilization in the coil.

Validation of the High Performance Conduction-Cooled Prototype LTS Pulse Coil for UPS-SMES

A conduction-cooled low temperature superconducting (LTS) pulse coil has been developed as a key technology for UPS-SMES. We have been developing a 1 MW, 1 s UPS-SMES for a protection from a momentary voltage drop and an instant power failure. A conduction-cooled LTS pulse coil has excellent characteristics, which are adequate for a short-time uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The LTS coil has better cost performance over the HTS coil at present and the conduction cooling has higher reliability and easier operation than the conventional cooling schemes such as pool boiling with liquid helium or forced flow of supercritical helium. To demonstrate the high performances of the LTS pulse coil, we have fabricated a prototype coil with stored energy of 100 kJ and have conducted cooling and excitation tests. The successful performance test results including current shut-off test with a time constant of 1.3 s and repeated excitation of a triangular waveform with high ramp rate are reported

AC Losses in a Conduction-Cooled LTS Pulse Coil With Stored Energy of 1 MJ for UPS-SMES as Protection From Momentary Voltage Drops

AC losses in the conduction-cooled low temperature superconducting (LTS) pulse coil with stored energy of 1 MJ are estimated. The 1 MJ coil is a superconducting pulse coil for 1 MW, 1 sec UPS-SMES. UPS-SMES is an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) for protection of production lines of an industrial plant or large-scale experimental devices such as a fusion device, from a momentary voltage drop and an instant power failure. The winding conductor for the 1 MJ coil is a NbTi/Cu Rutherford cable, which is extruded with aluminum. The 1 MJ coil was wound by a new twist winding method. A 1 MJ coil was fabricated and cooling and excitation tests were carried out. In this paper, two methods to estimate ac losses in conduction-cooled LTS coils are proposed. One method estimates ac losses in the coil under steady-state conditions. The other method estimates ac losses in the coil under transient-state conditions. For estimation of ac losses in the 1 MJ coil, measurement of temperature in the coil during tests and thermal analysis using the two-dimensional finite element method are compared. These procedures clarified that the 1 MJ coil has low losses.

Development of 1 MJ Conduction-Cooled LTS Pulse Coil for UPS-SMES

A 1 MW, 1 s UPS-SMES is being developed for a protection from a momentary voltage drop and an instant power failure. As a key technology of the UPS-SMES, we developed a prototype LTS pulse coil with a stored energy of 100 kJ and conducted cooling and excitation tests in 2005. The operation test of the prototype UPS-SMES using this 100 kJ coil with power converters have been performed in 2006. A 1 MJ coil was designed before the fabrication of the 100 kJ prototype coil. The superconductor, the electric insulation technique, the winding method, and the cooling structure used for the 100 kJ coil were based upon the 1 MJ coil design. The successful performance test results of the prototype 100 kJ coil validated the design concept and fabrication technique of the 1 MJ coil. According to the achievement of the prototype 100 kJ UPS-SMES, the 1 MJ conduction-cooled LTS pulse coil has been fabricated successfully. The successful experimental results of the 100 kJ prototype coil with power converters and the fabrication procedure of the 1 MJ full size coil are described.

Prototype development of a conduction-cooled LTS pulse coil for UPS-SMES

We are planning to develop a 1 MW, 1 sec UPS-SMES for a protection from a momentary voltage drop and an instant power failure. As the first step, we have been developing a 100 kJ class prototype UPS-SMES, using a low temperature superconducting coil because of its better cost and performance over the high temperature superconducting coil. However, the difficulty to utilize a pool-boiling LTS pulse coil is the reliability of operation. To solve this problem, a conduction-cooled LTS pulse coil has been designed and fabricated as a key component of the UPS-SMES. The reduction of AC loss and high stability are required for the SC conductor for the conduction-cooled coil because of a limited cooling capacity. The SC conductor of a NbTi/Cu compacted strand cable extruded with an aluminum is designed to have the anisotropic AC loss properties to minimize the coupling loss under the specified orientation of the time varying magnetic field. The coil was wound with a new twist-winding method in which the variation of twist angle of the conductor was controlled with the winding machine designed specifically for this purpose. The fabrication technique and performance of a conduction-cooled prototype LTS pulse coil are described.

Heat Transfer Properties of a Conduction Cooled Prototype LTS Pulse Coil for UPS-SMES

We have been developing a 1 MW, 1 sec UPS-SMES for the protection of production lines of an industrial plant or large-scale experimental devices such as a fusion device from a momentary voltage drop and an instant power failure. A conduction cooled prototype LTS pulse coil of 100 kJ class was developed as a key component of the UPS-SMES. The prototype coil has demonstrated excellent thermal characteristics during cooling and exciting tests. In this paper, measurements of the temperature in the coil during experiments and thermal analysis by using two-dimensional finite element methods were compared to clarify the high heat transfer properties of this prototype coil. This coil was wound with a NbTi/Cu Rutherford cable, which is extruded with aluminum. In order to realize the conduction cooled LTS pulse coil, FRP with polyethylene fibers (Dyneema FRP) and Litz wires were used as spacers. Dyneema FRP improves the heat transfer from layer to layer in the windings. Litz wires increase the heat transfer from turn to turn in the windings and enable conduction cooling of the coil by attaching the end of the Litz wires directly to the cold heads of the cryocoolers. It was clarified that these spacers were very effective and the coil has a large stability margin in terms of the design values

Line voltage detector for SMES system designed to protect from momentary voltage drop

For the precision industrial plants, a stable electrical power source is the one of the key components as known as well. Usually, a battery type UPS is used to protect computers from the power failure, but it cannot protect the whole plant because its capacity is too small to supply for all facilities. A short time SMES system is suitable to cover this problem. It will supply the enough power to the plant while the line voltage is momentary dropped. The target plant may be sensitive for the line voltage drop, a high-speed detection of voltage drop is required and a detector that uses two detect method in parallel, was developed. This paper introduces the voltage detector developed for the SMES system.