Conceptual design of current lead for large scale high temperature superconducting rotating machine

Abstract

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) rotating machines always require an electric current of from several hundreds to several thousand amperes to be led from outside into cold region of the field coil. Heat losses through the current leads then assume tremendous importance. Consequently, it is necessary to acquire optimal design for the leads which would achieve minimum heat loss during operation of machines for a given electrical current. In this paper, conduction cooled current lead type of 10 MW-Class HTS rotating machine will be chosen, a conceptual design will be discussed and performed relied on the least heat lost estimation between conventional metal lead and partially HTS lead. In addition, steady-state thermal characteristic of each one also is considered and illustrated.