Design and test of a high-Tc superconducting power conversion system with the GdBCO Magnet

This paper describes the design and test of a high-Tc Superconducting (HTS) power conversion system with the GdBCO magnet and presents its operational characteristics through tests. The HTS power conversion system can be employed to charge and discharge an Energy Storage Magnet (ESM). The HTS power conversion system consists of two heaters, a transformer, and a GdBCO pancake magnet. The energy stored in the dc magnet is converted to ac power via a transformer consisting of an HTS secondary and a normal copper primary. The timing sequential control and thermal transition of heaters are important factors to generate charging and discharging in ESM. In this paper, we verified the feasibility of the HTS power conversion system and obtained the design and manufacturing techniques for scale-up of the system. Based upon the tests, the operating current of 12 A in the transformer and the heater current was optimally derived. Themagnetic energy was stored about 46.7 J. In discharging test, the system was converted from dc to ac power at 0.5 Hz and 1 Hz. The efficiency of the system reached about 96%.