Analytical and empirical studies on the characteristic resistances of no-insulation GdBCO racetrack pancake coil under various operating currents

Abstract

This paper presents the effects of the Lorentz force on the electrical behaviors of the no-insulation (NI) GdBCO racetrack pancake (RP) coil without turn-to-turn insulation by performing charging/discharging and sudden-discharging tests. The simulation results of the 2-dimensional finite element method showed that the Lorentz forces were generated towards the center of the winding pack consisting of 60-turn GdBCO CCs, which could enhanced the turn-to-turn contact within the RP coil. The charging/discharging test results indicated that the characteristic resistance (R-c) of the NI RP coil decreased with increasing operating current, which was caused by an increase of the Lorentz force. Further, the results of the sudden-discharging tests exhibited that the Lorentz force was dissipated instantly during the sudden-discharge of the coil, since the operating current immediately decreased to zero. Overall, this study clearly demonstrated that the Lorentz force induced by the operating current exerts the electrical behaviors of an NI RP coil. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.