A new benchmark problem for electromagnetic modelling of superconductors: the high-Tc superconducting dynamo

Abstract

The high-Tc superconducting (HTS) dynamo is a promising device that can inject large DC supercurrents into a closed superconducting circuit. This is particularly attractive to energise HTS coils in NMR/MRI magnets and superconducting rotating machines without the need for connection to a power supply via current leads. It is only very recently that quantitatively accurate, predictive models have been developed which are capable of analysing HTS dynamos and explain their underlying physical mechanism. In this work, we propose to use the HTS dynamo as a new benchmark problem for the HTS modelling community. The benchmark geometry consists of a permanent magnet rotating past a stationary HTS coated-conductor wire in the open-circuit configuration, assuming for simplicity the 2D (infinitely long) case. Despite this geometric simplicity the solution is complex, comprising time-varying spatially-inhomogeneous currents and fields throughout the superconducting volume. In this work, this benchmark problem has been implemented using several different methods, including H-formulation-based methods, coupled H-A and T-A formulations, the Minimum Electromagnetic Entropy Production method, and integral equation and volume integral equation-based equivalent circuit methods. Each of these approaches show excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement for the open-circuit equivalent instantaneous voltage and the cumulative time-averaged equivalent voltage, as well as the current density and electric field distributions within the HTS wire at key positions during the magnet transit. A critical analysis and comparison of each of the modelling frameworks is presented, based on the following key metrics: number of mesh elements in the HTS wire, total number of mesh elements in the model, number of degrees of freedom (DOFs), tolerance settings and the approximate time taken per cycle for each model.

arXiv comment22 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (10)

• Calculation of AC losses in stacks and coils made of second generation high temperature superconducting tapes for large scale applications
• Computation of Losses in HTS Under the Action of Varying Magnetic Fields and Currents
• Review of the AC Loss Computation for HTS using the H-formulation
• Superconducting Magnetic Bearings Simulation using an H-formulation Finite Element Model
• A finite element method framework for modeling rotating machines with superconducting windings
• Electromagnetic modelling of superconductors with a smooth current-voltage relation: variational principle and coils from a few turns to large magnets
• T-A Formulation to Model Electrical Machines with HTS Coated Conductor Coils
• 3D computation of non-linear eddy currents: variational method and superconducting cubic bulk
• Electromagnetic Modeling of Superconductors with Commercial Software: Possibilities with Two Vector Potential-Based Formulations
• Modeling of Airgap Influence on DC Voltage Generation in a Dynamo-Type Flux Pump

Cited by in corpus (6)

• 3D modeling of a Superconducting Dynamo-Type Flux Pump
• Modeling the charging process of a coil by an HTS dynamo-type flux pump
• Fully-staggered-array bulk Re-Ba-Cu-O short-period undulator: large-scale 3D electromagnetic modelling and design optimization using A-V and H-formulation methods
• Fast solution of the superconducting dynamo benchmark problem
• Two-dimensional model of a high-Tc superconducting dynamo
• Hermite-Chebyshev pseudospectral method for inhomogeneous superconducting strip problems and magnetic flux pump modeling