AC Losses in Non-inductive SFCL Solenoidal Coils Wound by Parallel Conductors

Large scale resistive superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) have attracted great interest in electric power systems and aviation applications due to their compactness, lightweight, automatic fault current limiting and fast recovery characteristics. Non-inductive coil wound with stacked conductors in parallel connection is commonly used to achieve high current rating for SFCL. It is of great significance and engineering value to minimize AC losses in non-inductive coil by optimizing the configuration of the stacked conductors in order to reduce the thermal load for cooling system. In this paper, multiple possible configurations of non-inductive stacks where each turn is composed of one, two and three conductors, respectively, were proposed. Numerical models were developed to investigate the effect of non-inductive stack configuration on AC loss. 8-turn non-inductive solenoidal coils wound with the non-inductive stacks mentioned in the above were also simulated. It is concluded that the configuration of the non-inductive stack significantly affects the perpendicular magnetic field distribution in the end edges of the stack. Single layer configurations have limited magnetic field cancellation effect. The stack configuration with low AC loss and simple structure was suggested.