New simulation setup for modelling the thermal-electric-magnetic behavior of superconductors

Abstract

This paper presents a new equation for the calculation of the thermal-electric behavior of superconductors. The equation is based on measurements of YBCO thin-films which were carried out in liquid nitrogen (LN2), varying the temperature by application of different pressures. The principle of the experimental set-up is described in [1]. Thus, the temperature and current dependent resistivity characteristics can be obtained. The equation derived from those measurements describes the current-temperature dependency of the YBCO thin-film resistivity within the range of interest for resitive Superconducting Fault Current Limiters (FCL). In a first step the equation was used to program a superconducting thermal-electric element within the commercially available 3D finite element (FEM) multipurpose program ANSYS, which was also used to cross-check the measurements by simulations. In a second step the equation was incorporated into the FEM program COMSOL and expanded to consider the magnetic field too. The resulting simulation setup is shown along with some exemplary simulations. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.