SUPERCONDUCTING MACHINES

PANKAJ JAIN Department of Electrical Engineering Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajpura , Punjab 2011

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY (B.TECH)

Seminar Title: SUPERCONDUCTING MACHINES Name: PANKAJ JAIN College Roll Number: E083029 University Roll Number: 80904109028
Faculty in charge: Ms. ANU SINGLA

Date of submission: November, 2011

SUPERCONDUCTING MACHINES

B. TECH. SEMINAR Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY in ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING by PANKAJ JAIN (University Roll no. 80904109028) DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING CHITKARA INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY RAJPURA, PUNJAB NOVEMBER 2011

CERTIFICATE

Department of Electrical Engineering Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajpura , Punjab

The seminar report entitled SUPERCONDUCTING MACHINES submitted by Mr. PANKAJ (University Roll No.80904109028) may be accepted for being evaluated.

Date: November 20, 2011

Signature
Name of Faculty In charge: Ms. ANU SINGLA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Before starting the report on my seminar topic, I must express my gratitude to the people who helped me & guided me in this project. The real spirit of achieving is through the way of excellence & adulterous discipline. I d never have succeeded in finishing it but am really thankful for the encouragement & help provided by Ms. Anu Singla (In-charge of Seminar Laboratory) for providing me with the opportunity for finishing my work of seminar topic I am grateful to her for taking extra pain to help us in my problems. She has always been a source of encouragement & courage to me. Under her guidance, I never had any problem in understanding & getting my jobs done. It had been a wonderful experience. I am deeply indebted to all those who made it happen. Even after leaving this Temple of education i will remember them to every step of success.

ABSTRACT

Superconducting rotating machines have looked promising since multifilamentary niobium titanium (NbTi) superconductors became available in the mid-1960s. Both dc homopolar and ac synchronous machines were successfully tested from the 1970s to the 1990s. Three different 70-MW generators were recently demonstrated by the SuperGM project in Japan. However, economic considerations with respect to competitive cost combined with the requirement for liquid helium cooling did not make these machines commercially attractive. On the other hand, high-temperature superconductors (HTSs) can operate at much higher temperatures (30 40 K), providing much larger thermal margin and simpler cooling systems. Main applications for rotating electric synchronous machines are given as generators and motors a small niche can also be found in synchronous condenser-applications. High temperature superconducting (HTS) rotating machines show several significant advantages over machines built in conventional techniques. These are mainly increased efficiency, higher power density, and enhanced electrical stability. Especially for on-board applications, these properties may be decisive to save fuel and space and improve the capabilities. In the past, basic programs were carried out to demonstrate in principle the possibility to build such machines. Meanwhile these programs have shown great success and the feasibility of HTS machines for such applications has come into reach. For that reason developments for HTS machines in the megawatt-range are now being in progress, for propulsion purposes as well as for power generation applications.

CONTENT

Sr. No.

Title Certificate Acknowledgement Abstract

Page No.

1. 2. 3. 4 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Introduction Types of superconductors HTS superconductors HTS Machine Configuration Characteristics of superconductors Superconducting Machine Analysis Specifications of SM Testing Method Machines Applications Conclusion References of Superconducting

8 10 10 11 14 16 17 18 20 35 36

List of Figures
Figure No. Fig.1 Fig.2 Fig.2.1 Fig.3 Figure Depicting Page No. Temperature Vs resistance Showing Type1 and Type2 Conductor Block diagram of a superconducting synchronous machine Major components of an HTS generator installation Superconducting machine scaling relationship 9 11 12 15

SUPERCONDUCTING MACHINES

INTRODUCTION
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum mechanical phenomenon. It is characterized by the Meissner effect, the complete ejection of magnetic field lines from the interior of the superconductor as it transitions into the superconducting state. The advent of hightemperature superconductivity has created the opportunity for a quantum leap in the technology of large electric machines. HTS-based motors and generators will be smaller, lighter, more efficient, and less expensive to manufacture and operate than conventional machines. The potentially significant cost, size, weight and efficiency benefits of superconducting machines will change the dynamics of the electrical machinery industry. This unique situation leads to reduced manufacturing costs. The initial use for HTS motors will likely be in transportation applications, particularly naval and commercial ship (marine) electric propulsion, where critical size and weight savings will provide a key benefit by increasing ship design flexibility. General Electric and Westinghouse independently conducted large superconducting generator design studies during the 1970 s; both approaches were based on LTS wire. General Electric also built and tested a 20 MVA superconducting generator in the 1970 s, and a Japanese consortium built and tested a 70 MW generator during the 1990 s. These machines employed LTS wire made up of a niobium-titanium (NbTi) alloy. The high current density achievable in superconducting electromagnets makes it possible to create very compact and power-dense rotating machinery. However, even at such large ratings, the complexity and cost of the refrigeration equipment, and the challenging nature of thermal isolation systems that are necessary for allowing LTS materials to operate at an ultra-low 4K, have made any conceivable commercialization of this early superconducting technology in rotating machine applications a prohibitive concept.

TYPE 1 SC:
The Type 1 superconductors are mainly comprised of metals and metalloids that show some conductivity at room temperature. They require incredible cold to slow down molecular vibrations sufficiently to facilitate unimpeded electron flow in accordance with what is known as BCS theory. BCS theory suggests that electrons team up in "Cooper
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pairs" in order to help each other overcome molecular obstacles - much like race cars on a track drafting each other in order to go faster. Scientists call this process phonon-mediated coupling because of the sound packets generated by the flexing of the crystal lattice.

TYPE 2 SC:
Type-II superconductors are usually made of metal alloys or complex oxide ceramics, whereas most superconducting pure metals are Type-I superconductors. All high temperature superconductors are Type-II superconductors, and comprise mostly complex copper oxide ceramics.

Fig1. Temperature Vs resisitance Showing Type1 and Type2 Conductor

Unique Properties
Zero resistance to direct current Extremely high current carrying density Extremely low resistance at high frequencies Extremely low signal dispersion High sensitivity to magnetic field Exclusion of externally applied magnetic field Rapid single flux quantum transfer Close to speed of light signal transmission

Types of Superconductors

1.HTS (High Temperature Superconductors) 2.LTS (Low Temperature Superconductors)

HTS Superconductors
High Temperature superconductors (HTS), which were discovered in the 1980s, will exhibit superconductor properties at much higher temperatures than that of liquid Helium. In fact, relatively cheap and easily obtainable liquid Nitrogen (LN2) will sufficiently cool a HTS. LN2 has a boiling point of 196 C. This is still very cold but much easier to accomplish than 273 C! Really, they should be called relatively high temperature superconductors since the temperatures involved are not high by any means. One of the most popular HTSs is YttriumBarium-Copper-Oxide (YBCO). It is a ceramic material that is an insulator at room temperature. You read that correctly. It is an electrical insulator at room temperature but when you cool it with LN2 it becomes a perfect conductor of electricity. Strange stuff! One drawback to current HTS material is that it is brittle. It is difficult to make a flexible wire out of the current HTS materials. The brittleness is a very big hindrance to practical usage. This manufacturing difficulty (increased labor and wasted material) can make equipment that uses HTS material more expensive than ordinary versions of the equipment. HTS wire can be ordered from companies such as American Superconductor.

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HTS machine configuration

The major components of a rotating machine employing an HTS winding are shown in Figure I. Only the field winding employs HTS coils cooled with a crycooler subsystem to about 3540K. The crycooler modules are located in a stationary frame, and a fluid such as gaseous helium or liquid neon is employed to cool components on the rotor. The stator winding employs conventional copper winding. Outwardly, these machines do not look much different than conventional machines. Major subsystems of HTS machines are discussed below.

HTS Field Windings:

The field winding is constructed from an HTS conductor. Currently BSCCO-2223 conductor is commercially available from AMSC in the US and other sources in Europe and Japan. The field winding is isolated thermally from the warm shaft and rotor enclosure. Since torque is experienced by the field winding, low thermal conductivity torque tubes are employed to transfer the torque from the cold field winding to the warm shaft, while limiting the thermal conduction info the cold space. The field winding can be excited with slip-rings or brushless exciters. Brushless exciters are preformed by all segments of industry as they require minimal maintenance and are well suited for hazardous or contaminated environments.

Figure 2: Block diagram of a superconducting synchronous machine showing superconducting field winding and its cooling system, and conventional armature winding

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Refrigeration System:
The field winding is cooled with refrigerators located in the stationary frame. Generally a closed-loop system utilizing a suitable gas such as helium is employed as the cooling medium. The gas is transferred from stationary to rotating reference frame using a rotating coupling. Cooling system has been developed for cooling the HTS field winding to 30 K. These systems employ Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers which are widely used by MRI and vacuum system industries and are commercially available as Components-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) catalogue items. Substantial experience has been gained for operating both field winding and cryocooling systems. A typical cryocooler and its compressor are shown in Figure 2. Each cryocooler head is about 4-in. diameter and 14-in. tall. Its associated compressor is a cube with 24-in. side dimension. Each compressor weighs about 260 Ibs. and could be located up to 50- 100 feet away from the machine, if necessary.

Installation Consideration:
Most of the electrical and mechanical interfaces for the HTS machines are similar to conventional machines. Larger conventional machines employ complex hydrogen or helium for cooling the rotor. On the other hand, HTS machines require cooling of the field winding which is I accomplished with COTS subsystems. A typical installation of an HTS generator is shown in Figure2.1. A motor or synchronous condenser installation would be similar. The prime mover, generator and exciter installation are similar to conventional machines. The stator employs a copper winding similar to a conventional machine and is cooled using traditional cooling techniques. The brushless exciter system will come assembled on the generator. The only difference is the cooling system for the field winding on the rotor.

Figure2.1 : Major components of an HTS generator installation The rotor cooling system consists of two components: y Cooling module consisting of cryocoolers y Helium compressors to drive the cryocoolers The cooling module is coupled with the rotating shaft through a rotating coupling which allows transfer of the coolant from the stationary frame to the rotating reference frame of the rotor. The helium compressor can be located away from the machine. reference frame of the rotor. The helium compressor can be located away from the machine.
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Operational Consideration:
Although HTS machines look similar to their conventional cousins, there are some salient differences in their electrical characteristics. They require different support equipment, such as refrigerators for cooling the superconducting winding. The discussion in this section is, therefore, split in two parts electrical operation and mechanical operation.

Electrical Operation:
The superconducting machines are characterized with low synchronous reactance (xd) in the range of 0.3 to 0.6pu, which helps in easy voltage regulation. The total field current swing between no-load and full-load, conditions is small as compared with conventional machines. V-curves for a typical superconducting machine (with xd = 0.3pu) are shown in Figure. A superconducting machine can operate at any power factor (including zero - leading or lagging) within its MVA rating. The critical fault clearing time of the machine is not significantly affected over the whole operating range.

Figure : V-curves for a superconducting machine show that it can be operated at any load and power factor within its MVA rating. HTS field winding current can be varied to meet system needs without an impact on the life of the field winding - thermal expansion and contractions experienced by copper field windings of conventional machines are absent in superconducting machines. An superconducting machine also operates at a small load angle (typically 10.15 degrees) and has a large spring constant in relation to small oscillations. The outermost surface of the rotor is provided with an electromagnetic (EM) shield (equivalent of dampers) which damps out small oscillations. Figure 6 shows the variation of load angle of a 10 MVA machine' during and following a 25 cycle fault from no-load on the high voltage side of the transformer. The effectiveness of the EM shield is demonstrated by rapid damping of the slow oscillations. An HTS machine can recover from transient faults without requiring active control of the field current. Fault recovery in Figure 6 is without active control of the field current.
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Control and Communication:

Like conventional machines, HTS machines will be supplied with an Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) that will regulate the machine voltage within margins set by the operator. Operators can also manually adjust the load and obtain system state conditions. Most of the mechanical and thermal data typically monitored in conventional machines will also be monitored in the HTS machines. The superconducting rotor and its cooling system are the only subsystems that are different than the conventional machines. States of the field winding, cryocoolers and compressors will be monitored and data will be transmitted to remote control consoles. Typical states to be monitored are listed below: Brushless Exciter , Control field current in response to AVR or a command from the operator. Field Windings: y Coil voltages and currents y Coil temperature y Current lead temperature Cryocoolers and Compressors: y Cryocooler temperature Compressor helium pressure and flow rates y Compressor temperature y Compressor cooling water temperature and flow This data will be used for making maintenance decisions and setting up state flags.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SUPERCONDUCTING MACHINES

A typical SC machine, shown in Fig.3. employs a cryogenic rotating SC field winding and a conventional room temperature copper armature winding. A conventional magnetic iron core is usually not employed for an SC rotor, since the high magnetic field generated by the SC windings would easily saturate the iron core. For example, the magnetic field in the air gap of an SC machine is typically 1.5 2.0 T, which is a factor of two larger than that in a conventional machine. This field would saturate the iron teeth and would produce excessive heating and noise. Only the stator yoke (back iron) employs magnetic iron to provide shielding and carry flux between adjacent poles. The absence of iron in most of the magnetic circuit causes these machines to have a very low synchronous reactance (typically 0.3 0.5 pu), which provides among other benefits a much larger dynamic stability limit within its MVA rating. A rapid feedback control system is, thus, not required for stabilization of these machines. They also have superior damping during small oscillations and require no field forcing for damping these oscillations. Generally, SC machines are more robust than conventional machines during transient system faults. On the other hand, transient and sub transient reactances are similar to those of conventional machines. The lower synchronous reactance permits operation of these machines at lower load angles than conventional machines. Additional benefits of an SC machine are summarized below.

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Improved reactive power (VAR) for both overexcited and under excited operating conditions. Compact and lighter. Virtually no harmonics in the terminal voltage. Potentially longer rotor life due to the elimination of thermal load cycling for field winding current changes. Higher efficiency, even under partial load conditions, with potential for significant operating cost savings. Structure-related vibrations and noise are lower than conventional machines.

Fig.3 Superconducting machine scaling relationship comparison of size and weight of HTS and conventional machines for ship propulsion motors.

The applications of superconductors include:

y y y y y

MRI scanners magnetic separators high-speed monorail trains mechanical flywheels Large Hadron Collider
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SUPERCONDUCTING MACHINE ANALYSIS

Superconducting Machine Scaling Laws:
As an SC machine can generate very high magnetic field in the air gap, no magnetic iron teeth are employed for the rotor or stator. Only back iron is used on the stator to return flux between adjacent poles. The power generated in a rotating machine is described by (1)

Where, P-air-gap power; B-air-gap flux density; J-air-gap armature linear current density; R-air-gap radius; L-active length of machine. Changing the slot depth on the rotor or on the stator has little impact on the air-gap flux density in a conventional machine because it is limited by saturation of the iron teeth on the rotor and stator. However, an air-core machine that does not employ iron teeth has no such constraint. Thus, the rotor and stator slot depth of an HTS machine can be chosen independently to achieve high power rating. he magnetic field ( ) created by the field winding in the air gap is directly proportional to rotor slot depth

The air-gap linear armature current density (J) is given as

Where, R = stator slot depth and J = armature current density Substituting B and J from (2) and (3) in (1) yields

To obtain a concept of the scaling features of the rotating machine, (4) dimensionally reduces to

This equation says that the rating of an SC machine scales as fifth power of dimension ( ) as compared to the third power for a conventional machine. Thus, for a given power rating, an SC machine could be more compact and lighter than a conventional machine. This feature is demonstrated most dramatically in Fig. 2 as it applies to low-speed high torque motors for ship propulsion. The top plot shows typical speed of a ship propulsion motor as a function of
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its rating. The middle plot compares length and diameter of SC and conventional machines. The bottom chart compares relative weights of two kinds of machines.

Performance of Superconducting Machines

y Machinery can be built with a much higher power density than machines with conventional copper windings in the rotor, leading to smaller and lighter machines. Here often a factor of two and larger compared to conventional machines is claimed. Due to the high magnetic field produced by the rotor the stator winding cannot have iron-teeth. This leads on one hand to a further reduction in weight and on the other hand losses due to eddy-currents in the stator iron are avoided (of course there still remains an iron yoke with the corresponding eddy-current and hysteresis losses). Together with the loss-free excitation of the rotor-winding this leads to an increase in machine efficiency. This even holds when the power consumption of the coolingsystem, necessary to keep the rotor in the superconducting state, is taken into account. SC machines are characterized by a low synchronous reactance and very long transient time constant. SC machines tend to have better transient stability than conventional machines.

y y

Specifications for Superconducting Generators for the SuperGM Program:

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Testing of Superconducting Machines

1. No Load Test:
The armature ends are connected to an oscilloscope to observe the line to line voltages (Fig. 16). A speed

Fig.17. Generated voltage at 90 rpm and 10 A in the inductor.

Fig.18. Measured currents

Fig.19. Armature currents at 80 rpm and 16 A in the inductor.

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armature of the superconducting machine thanks to transmission belts. In the beginning of each test, the inductor is cooled down at 4.2 K, meanwhile the inductor current is 0 A and the armature is motionless. The superconducting machine is driven by an induction motor. We note that the generated voltage system is three-phased with quasi-sinusoidal voltages. This test proves that the designed configuration of the inductor is correct.

2. Short-Circuit Test:
The three phases of the armature are now short-circuited (Fig. 18). We supply 16 A in the inductor and, using the speed variator, we have the armature rotating at 80 rpm. The armature currents are visualized using an oscilloscope. Fig. 19 shows the measured currents using the oscilloscope. These two first tests were performed with the objective of verifying the voltages and current signals. A complete no-load and short-circuit tests are made to determine the equivalent circuit of the superconducting machine.

Fig. 20. No-load tests at 190 rpm and a variable inductor current.

Fig. 21. Short-circuit tests at 190 rpm and a variable inductor current.

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Fig. 22. Equivalent circuit of the superconducting machine.

3. Equivalent Circuit of the Superconducting Machine:

In this section, we present two families of tests: no-load tests with the variation of the inductor current and short-circuit tests with the variation of the inductor currents. All the tests of this section are carried out at 190 rpm. In the no-load tests, the inductor current increases from 0 to 30 A. The voltage is measured between phases 1 and 2. In the shortcircuit tests, the inductor current increases from 0 to 16. The armature current in phase 1 is measured. Figs. 20 and 21 show the results of the no-load and the short circuit tests. Using an ohm-meter and the results of the previous tests, an equivalent scheme is obtained (Fig. 22). The variation of the generated voltage in the case of the no-load test is linear if the inductor current is less than 20 A. We note a saturated curve of the generated voltage after 20 A in the inductor. On the other hand, the variation of the short-circuit current in the armature is perfectly linear. This phenomenon is also observed in conventional electrical machines.

Applications Of HTS: 1. High Temperature Superconducting Transmission Cables:

A High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) power cable is a wire-based device that carries large amounts of electrical current.

Two Types Of HTS Cables

1. Warm Dielectric Cable:

The warm dielectric cable configuration features a conductor made from HTS wires
wound around a flexible hollow core (figure 1). Liquid nitrogen flows through the core, cooling the HTS wire to the zero resistance state. The conductor is surrounded by conventional dielectric insulation. The efficiency of this design reduces losses.

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Figure 1. Construction of a warm dielectric HTS cable.

2. Cryogenic Dielectric Cable: The cryogenic dielectric is a coaxial configuration comprising an HTS conductor cooled by liquid nitrogen flowing through a flexible hollow core and an HTS return conductor, cooled by circulating liquid nitrogen. This represents an enhancement to the warm dielectric design, providing even greater ampacity, further reducing losses and entirely eliminating the need for dielectric fluids.

Figure 2. Construction of a cryogenic dielectric HTS cable.

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Where and How are They Used?

HTS transmission cables would be used for power transmission and distribution in urban areas throughout the United States and the world.

What are the Benefits?

y y y y y y

Can meet increasing power demands in urban areas via retrofit applications carrying two to five times more power than conventional cable Eliminates need to acquire new rights of way Replaces overhead transmission lines when environmental and other concerns prohibit their installation Enhanced overall system efficiency due to exceptionally low losses Increased utility system operating flexibility Reduced electricity costs.

With an estimated 80,000 miles of existing underground cable throughout the world, High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) cables will provide enormous benefits to a utility industry that is poised for growth and is faced with an ever rising demand for electricity faced with an ever rising demand for electricity and tightening constraints on siting flexibility. Conventional underground power transmission cables are utilised to transmit large amounts of power to congested urban areas. Conventional (copper-based) cables are capable of transmitting power (40 to 600 MVA) at high voltages (40 to 345 kV) through integrated underground duct systems. Existing duct systems limit the size of the conventional cables and the amount of power that can be transmitted through them.

HTS Cables:
Superconducting cables can provide 2 to 5 times more power than conventional cables of the same size. Much more power can be moved using the existing right of way duct system in densely populated urban areas. No expensive and disruptive excavation and construction are required.

Figure 3. Underground superconducting wires for domestic usage can increase current carrying capacity over conventional copper-based power lines.

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A promising application for HTS cables will be to provide a high capacity electrical highway solution to over-stressed transmission networks. With more power supply markets opening up due to utility deregulation, coupled with an ever-increasing demand for electricity, better electrical highways can be built to streamline the transportation of electricity from low cost generation suppliers to dense populated cities using smaller, higher capacity cables.

Construction of HTS Cables

Construction of the HTS cable uses traditional stranding techniques and equipment to wind HTS wires around a hollow core. Once liquid nitrogen is run through the hollow core to cool the HTS material, it becomes superconducting with significantly more current transport capacity than conventional copper-based cables.

Why HTS Cables will become the Norm

HTS cable systems will have the most immediate market acceptance for the following applications: Replacement of older cable systems past their rated life or with loads approaching the rating of the cable Replacement of existing overhead transmission lines with underground cable

Improvement of conventional transmission service links from Generation suppliers to Open Access customers

High Power Distribution

Another promising future application for HTS Cables will be High Power Distribution . Today, to increase a power supply to a urban area, utilities have to install transmission level voltage cables and utilize step-up (down) transformers at new substations. With stringent siting requirements and the unfavourable view of new substations in urban areas, an HTS cable will be able to transmit the same amount of power at distribution level voltages and eliminate the need for new substations.

Types of HTS Cable Applications

By design there are two types of HTS cable applications: Existing system upgrades New Systems

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Existing System Upgrade

In order to minimize replacement costs, the warm dielectric HTS cable is designed to fit within an existing duct system. This cable design uses conventional dielectric insulation and is sized to easily install in the existing duct system. With the HTS wires surrounding the hollow core, the cable effectively becomes superconducting with a significantly higher ampacity rating.

New Systems
The decision to choose an underground transmission cable rather than an overhead line system may include many factors such as; close proximity to heavy residential areas, size of the towers, fear of electro-magnetic frequencies (EMF s), and limitations on the existing infrastructure. With new duct systems, a coaxial cable system (comprised of one supply HTS conductor surrounding a flexible hollow core, and one return HTS conductor surrounding a cryogenic dielectric insulation) provides the best option with greater ampacity and reduction in losses.

2. Superconducting Generators:
A generator converts rotational mechanical input energy, such as that from a steam or gas turbine, into electricity. It does this by rotating a rotor field, which produces voltage in stationary armature conductors. The generator field can be produced with copper windings or permanent magnets. In large machines, mechanical considerations and the desire to vary the level of field produced typically favour the use of copper windings over permanent magnets.

Where and how are HTS generators used?

The primary application would be utility generation facilities, using either new or retrofitted generators. Retrofitting would be more likely in established industrial nations, while developing nations could benefit from new generators using HTS technology.

What is the market potential?

Generators represent a large, established worldwide market. Growth projections forecast that more than 1000 GW of new generation capacity will be needed in the next 10 years, 173 GW in the US. EPRI's Superconductivity Partnership Initiative estimates the worldwide generator market for this period is $23-30 billion.

What are the benefits of HTS generators?

Increase machine efficiency beyond 99%, reducing losses by as much as 50% over conventional generators
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Energy savings Reduced pollution per unit of energy produced Lower life-cycle costs Enhanced grid stability Reduced capital cost Reduced installation expenses

Advantages of HTS Generators

Efficiency Gains Generators lose power in the rotor windings and in the armature bars. By using superconducting wire for the field windings, these losses can be practically eliminated. The fields created in the armature by the rotor are not limited by the saturation characteristics of iron and the armatures are constructed without iron teeth. This removes the losses experienced in the armature teeth. The added space for copper in the armature made possible by the removal of the armature teeth further reduces losses. HTS generators will produce electric power with lower losses than their conventional equivalents. A 1,000 MW superconducting generator (a typical size in large power plants) could save as much as $4 million per year in reduced losses per generator. Even small efficiency improvements produce big dollar savings. A half of one percent improvement provides a utility or IPP with additional capacity to sell with a related value of nearly $300,000 per 100 MVA generator. The worldwide demand for additional electrical generation is ever increasing. The National Energy Information Center forecasts that the world will require 500,000 MW of additional electric generating capacity over the next ten years. Smaller and Lighter An HTS generator will be 1/3 the overall volume of its conventional equivalent. For example, in power plants where expansion is difficult (e.g. shipboard or locomotive power), superconducting generators could increase generating capacity without using additional space. Smaller, lighter HTS generators use an "air core" design, eliminating much of the structural and magnetic steel of a conventional equivalent. Construction, shipping, and installation are all simplified and less costly. System Impact A major benefit of HTS generators is lowered armature reactances. This benefit can profoundly impact utility stability considerations. One implication is a reduction in the
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amount of spinning reserve (unused but rotating generating capacity) needed to insure a stable overall power system. Another benefit is that an HTS generator has the capability of being significantly overexcited to permit power factor correction without adding synchronous reactors or capacitors to the power system.

3. Magnetic Levitation With Superconductors:

Magnetic levitation (maglev) is a fairly new transportation technology which facilitates noncontacting vehicles to travel safely between speeds of 250 to 300 mph or higher. The vehicles travel at that speed while being suspended, guided, and propelled above a guideway by magnetic fields. The guide way is the physical structural path along which maglev vehicles are levitated and travel. These guide ways can take many shapes, and can be made from steel, concrete, or aluminium. Maglev technology has three main parts: levitation or suspension, propulsion, and guidance. In most of the current designs, magnetic forces are used to perform all three functions, although a non-magnetic source of propulsion could be used. However, at this point, it is not clear whether magnetic or non-magnetic sources are better. Maglev technology employs Electromagnetic Suspension. It operates by creating an attractive force on the system by using electromagnets on the vehicle which interact and are attracted to ferromagnetic rails on the guide-way. The application of Electromagnetic Suspension was made practical due to advances in electronic control systems that maintain the air gap between vehicle and guide-way, which prevents contact.

How was it discovered or developed and by whom?

In 1911 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first discovered that when materials are superconductive, they have zero electrical resistance. He made that discovery while he was researching the resistance of various substances at super low temperatures. Onnes found that superconductivity is a quantum mechanical phenomenon, which is characterized by the Meissner effect. (Slichter,Charles."Introduction to the History of Superconductivity.")

Analysis:
BCS theory
The Physics that govern superconductors can only be explained with Modern Physics because Classical Physics does not provide an explanation for superconductivity of materials at their critical temperatures. In the 1950s a discovery was made known as the isotope effect. This effect stated that the critical temperature of the material is related to the isotopic mass.
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where, M is isotopic mass, is a material property, and is the critical temperature. This equation tells us that the critical temperature of the material is inversely proportional to the isotropic mass. For materials that are denser, the critical temperature is lower. Also, this effect points out that that lattice ions are involved in superconductivity. This is in contrast with the classical model. Superconductors effectively levitate objects because they exhibit two special macroscopic features: zero resistivity and the Meissner effect. The resistivity of superconductors drops abruptly' to zero at or below their critical temperatures. In 1956, Leon Cooper offered an explanation for this phenomenon. He explained that the process starts in some materials at very low temperature when two electrons near the Fermi energy level could couple to form a new particle (boson), which occurs as a result of a very weak attractive force. The new particles are called Cooper pairs. The picture below shows the attractive force of the cooper pairs.

The most energetically favourable situation for this to occur is when two electrons have a total spin of zero. Since the Exclusion principle does not apply to particles with integer spin, there is no restriction on the energy state that the Cooper pair can occupy. Further, L.Cooper explained that at low temperatures thermal agitation is minimal, and that all of the Cooper pairs can occupy the lowest possible energy state. Thus, no energy exchanges can take place, and the energy loss due to resistance is not possible. The Cooper pairs move through the superconducting material without being impeded; therefore, it has zero electrical resistance and exhibits superconductivity. That is possible at a certain temperature because all the particles in a bosonic system would drop into the ground state and lose their individual characteristics, and their wave-functions would be unified. However, this is not possible for normal electrons (fermions) because they follow the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which means that no two fermions can occupy the same quantum state at the same time. This results in rigidity that prevents transmission of electrons, while bosons are said to be the particles that transmit interactions.(Thornton 309-310). Splitting a Cooper pair requires a certain amount of energy, just as splitting a molecule into its constituent atoms. This energy is related to the critical temperature through the equation:

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This equation is valid only at T=0K because as cooper pairs are split, there are free electrons which interact with the Cooper Pairs, and reduce the energy gap. This makes splitting Cooper Pairs easier, thus further reducing the energy gap and increasing the temperature. This process continues until the critical temperature is reached, and (Thornton 362368) and (Tipler, 492-494).

Meissner Effect
In "Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers," it is stated that, "the second important macroscopic phenomenon associated with superconductivity is the Meissner effect." This effect is responsible for the levitation by providing a repulsive force that is equal and opposite in direction to that of gravity. When a superconductor is placed in a weak external magnetic field, and is cooled to below its critical temperature, the superconductor cancels all the magnetic field inside.

The Meissner effect does not cause the field to be completely ejected, but instead the field penetrates the superconductor to a very small distance called the London penetration depth, which decays exponentially to zero within the material. Also, magnetic flux is conserved by a superconductor, so when the interior magnetic field is decreased the exterior field increases, which causes repulsion that results in levitation.It does this by generating screening currents near the surface which cancels the applied magnetic field. The generated current produce magnetic poles which mirror the poles of the permanent magnet, which repels them to provide the lift that levitate the magnet. Further, since superconductors have zero resistivity below their critical temperature, the generated current can be maintained indefinitely to sustain levitation. Thus, the levitated object can move in various directions because the screening current can adjust almost instantly to maintain levitation.(Nave R. "Meissner effect for superconductors." and Thornton 362-363.)

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Applications:
Superconductors are a very powerful tool that can be used in many applications. The negligible electrical resistance they have makes them excellent for electronics and transmission of power from power plants to cities. Additionally, they can be used for their magnetic properties. In the case of railways, they can be used to make trains more efficient by eliminating the need for wheels. In an industrial setting, they can be used to reduce the friction of the machines, which reduces wear and tear. Thus, this will lead to a longer lifespan of the tools. Additionally, in the medical field, superconductors can be used in MRI's to take x-ray photographs of people's bodies. One possible future use of superconductivity and maglev trains would be to build a transatlantic railway. This railway would be split between above ground enclosed tubes and submerged tubes. The submerged tubes would be floating 150 to 300 feet below the surface and ancored to the ocean floor in 300 foot sections. The trains traveling in these tubes are projected to reach speeds of nearly 4,000 km/hr. For this incredible speed to be attainable, the tubes would be completely vaccum sealed preventing any air within the tunnel. The vaccum would eliminate air resistance and prevent a sonic boom from occuring which could damage the entire structure. Moreover, without any air there would also be no friction or resisting forces acting upon the train during its travel through the tunnels allowing maximum efficiency. (Hoffman, Carl. "Trans-Atlantic Maglev.") Consequently, the 5,000 mile journey from New York to London would only take an hour. So, with this railway our world would become smaller, and what once took a day to travel would now be accessible on your lunch break.

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However, there is a major problem with using superconductors in any setting; they require very low temperatures to operate. More research is being done presently to find materials with higher critical temperatures to deal with that problem. Presently, the public tends to see superconductors as science fiction because spme of the prospective applications are way above their imaginations. Most of the usable materials have a critical temperature that is too low for any practical purpose. Further,Roomtemperature superconductor is a material yet to be discovered which would be capable of exhibiting superconducting properties at operating temperatures above 0 C (273.15 K). This is an area of intense research presently to find those materials, and effectively apply them to better our lives. Therefore, Magnetic-levitation is an application where superconductors perform extremely well. Transport vehicles such as trains can be made to "float" on strong superconducting magnets, virtually eliminating friction between the train and its tracks. Not only would conventional electromagnets waste much of the electrical energy as heat, they would have to be physically much larger than superconducting magnets. The physics that govern superconductivity can only be explained by Modern Physics, as explained in detail in the above paragraphs.

Applications in Medical Imaging and Diagnostics:

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) has become the gold standard in diagnostic medical imaging. It is not only safe and powerful, but thanks to superconducting magnets and their continued improvements, adds energy efficiency to its long list of benefits. In addition, advanced static and functional imaging techniques, using superconducting sensors, are emerging as complementary methods, enabling additional capabilities as well as lower cost. These include Ultra-Low-Field MRI, Magnetoencephalography (MEG), and Magnetocardiography (MCG). These advanced systems significantly improve the diagnostic
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tools available to healthcare providers and hold the promise of reducing lifetime healthcare costs.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI Radiation-free Imaging

The introduction of MRI into the healthcare system has resulted in substantial benefits. MRI provides an enormous increase in diagnostic ability, clearly showing soft tissue features not visible using X-ray imaging. At the same time MRI can often eliminate the need for harmful X-ray examinations. These advantages have greatly reduced the need for exploratory surgery. The availability of very precise diagnostic and location

Superconducting MRI system in operation

information is contributing to the reduction in the level of intervention that is required, reducing the length of hospital stays and the degree of discomfort suffered by patients. The basic science of resonance imaging has been understood for many years. The nucleus of most atoms behaves like a small spinning magnet. When subjected to a magnetic field it tries to align, but the spin means that instead it rotates around the field direction with a characteristic frequency proportional to the field strength. When a pulse of exactly the right radio frequency is applied, some of the energy of the pulse is absorbed by the spinning nucleus, and then released several milliseconds later. The timing of this energy release, or relaxation, was discovered to depend critically on the chemical environment of the atom, and in particular was found to be different between healthy and diseased tissue in the human body. By rapidly switching on and off magnetic field gradients superimposed on the main field it is possible to determine very accurate position information from these signals. The signals are processed by a computer to produce the now-familiar images from within the human body. Since the first crude MRI images were made in the 1970s, the industry has grown to a turnover of $2B/year. There are now well over 20,000 MRI systems installed worldwide, and the number is growing by 10% annually.

Advantages of Superconductivity
The heart of the MRI system is a superconducting magnet. The typical field values required for MRI cannot be achieved using conventional magnets. Just as importantly, high
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homogeneity and stability of the magnetic field are essential to achieve the resolution, precision and speed required for economical clinical imaging, and superconductors provide a unique solution to these requirements.

Expanding Applications of MRI

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), a rapidly growing extension of MRI techniques, uses a sequence of fast images to study dynamic changes, primarily blood flow rates. This has proved to be a powerful tool for imaging the activation of local regions in the brain. It is used to evaluate which areas of the brain are responsible for different functions, such as speaking, comprehension, moving fingers and toes and vision. An even newer technique, MRI guidance imaging, is used to assist physicians during surgery to plan the approach and more precisely locate and remove tumors. Another new technique, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, is used on a limited basis for evaluating brain tumors, neurological diseases and epilepsy. Spectroscopy gives information on the chemical composition and metabolic activity of brain tissue. This information is used to assist in making diagnoses, monitoring changes and evaluating seizure activity.

The Future of MRI

The number of MRI installations worldwide continues to grow at a rapid pace, providing ever more access to this powerful tool. MRI systems continue to advance in speed and resolution as the technologies of superconducting materials and superconducting magnets continue to advance. Exciting new methods that build on MRI are enabling new tools for both diagnosis and treatment of disease. It is clear that there are enormous potential benefits of continued support for R&D in superconducting materials and magnets.

Ultra-Low Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ULF-MRI)

Conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, discussed above, created a revolution in noninvasive imaging procedures, and the technique is used worldwide for many diagnoses. MRI is enabled by the high magnetic fields that only superconducting magnets can produce. Incremental improvements in the performance and cost of this established technology continue, but today researchers are also developing a complementary technique, Ultra-LowField MRI. In this new approach, instead of a high magnetic field from a superconducting magnet, a very low field - 10,000 times lower - is used. This low magnetic field is produced by simple, low cost, magnets made with room temperature copper wire. To compensate for the loss of the high magnetic field, the extreme sensitivity of a superconducting detector is required This detector, a SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device), enables the following benefits at low field: Significantly lower system cost, which could enable the new system to be much more widely available and used as an initial screening. In certain tissues, for example in breast and prostate tumors, ULF-MRI offers significantly better contrast between different tissue types, leading to more definitive diagnoses.

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These two benefits combine to make ULF-MRI an important advance geared towards reducing the cost of healthcare on the one hand and enhancing the diagnostic ability of certain conditions on the other. The effort is slowly advancing from research to in vivo imaging; it holds also the promise of combining ULF-MRI with magnetoencephalography (MEG). ULF-MRI is much greener than high-field MRI in that it consumes vastly less electrical power.

Applications in High-Energy Physics and Other Areas of Research

Superconductivity has played a key role throughout the past century in expanding the frontiers of human knowledge. Today, these materials continue to offer important new tools to expand our understanding of the natural world and potentially foster new energy technologies.

Discovering The Nature Of Matter And Energy

Scientists spent the last half of the century putting together what is called the Standard Model of particle physics. The Standard Model, which explains the basic interactions of fundamental particles that make up everything we see is the most complete physical theory in history, yet it leaves 95% of the universe unexplained! Particle physicists use accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used to accelerate particles to very high energies where they are brought together in collisions that generate particles that only existed a few moments after the Big Bang that created the universe 15 billion years ago. The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is located near Geneva, Switzerland and is scheduled to begin operation in late summer of 2008. It will be the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world with a circumference of 27 kilometers. Protons with energies of 7 trillion electron volts will be brought to collision inside giant detectors used to reconstruct the complex collisions that consist of hundreds of particles. This gargantuan time machine will generate conditions that existed approximately 20 billionths of a second after the Big Bang, and if nature is kind, will uncover phenomena never seen before.

LHC Magnet ready for testing

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Superconductivity Required
The rings of particle accelerators are made of superconducting magnets, strung together like beads on a necklace. In the LHC, two concentric rings are made up of thousands of superconducting magnets. The high energies required could not be economically achieved without superconducting magnets. The largest are the main dipoles that steer the particles around the ring. These magnets contain over 1,500 tons of superconducting cable. Superconductivity also enables construction of giant magnets for the detectors at the LHC used to measure the properties of the particles produced in the collisions.

Accelerator Magnets in the LHC Tunnel

Detector Magnet for one of the LHC experiments

Fusion Energy
Bringing A Star To Earth One of the biggest and potentially most significant scientific research projects now underway worldwide is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). This global project represents one of the biggest collaborations in energy research and is aimed at demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes. ITER aims to provide the know-how to later build the first electricity-generating power station based on magnetic confinement of high temperature plasma - in other words, to capture and use the power of the sun on earth. Superconductors play a critical enabling role in this important project by generating the high magnetic fields needed to confine and shape the high temperature plasma.

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The ITER reactor will use 900 tons of superconductors in more than 20 Individual magnet sections

Space Exploration
Superconductors are under development for a range of space-related applications. Space telescopes and other space-based instruments require absolute minimal power budgets, and the low-loss natures of superconductors make them ideal in such applications. These applications include magnetic actuators, magnetic refrigeration, magnetically assisted propulsion and spaced based magnetic plasma confinement.

Issues and Recommendations

Such significant achievements can continue only with sustained support for the superconductor industry, including managing swings in demand that such large projects require, continuing research on new superconducting materials and maintaining a robust university infrastructure of programs in materials and device research.

CONCLUSIONS
A superconducting machine has been successfully designed, constructed and tested. Lowtemperature superconducting NbTi wires have been used to generate a high magnetic field concentrated using YBaCuO high-temperature superconducting (HTS) bulk plates. To facilitate the cooling operation, the superconducting machine has a stationary superconducting inductor and a rotating armature wound with copper wires. The cryostat is mounted vertically and is placed in the air-gap of the machine. The inductor is cooled down to 4.2 K using liquid helium. This work illustrates the possibility to manufacture a superconducting machine based on magnetic field concentration. After the study of the constructed machine an optimization study will be performed to improve the performance.
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REFERENCES
y y G. Bogner, "Large Scale Applications of Superconductivity in Germany", Superconducting Machines and Devices. Kalsi, S.S., et al, Superconducting Dynamic Synchronous Condenser for Improved Grid Voltage Suppon , a paper to Presented at 2003 IEEE T&D Conference, Dallas, Texas. R. D. Blaugher, Superconducting electric power applications, Adv. Cryogenic Eng., vol. 42, pp. 883 898, 1996. J. R. Hull and M. Murakami, Applications of bulk high- temperature superconductors, Proc. IEEE, vol. 92, no. 10, pp. 1705 1718, Oct. 2004. http://www.amsuper.com/products/htsWire/index.cfm American Superconductor, HTS Wire, http://www.amsuper.com/products/htsWire/index.cfm M. Hirakawa, S. Inadama, K. Kikukawa, E. Suzuki, and H. Nakasima, Developments of superconducting motor with YBCO bulk magnets, Physica C, vol. 392 396, pp. 773 776, 2003.

y y y y y

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