Stability improvement of AC superconducting magnet by forced-convection cooling

The authors propose a new improved cooling system of an AC(50/60 Hz) superconducting magnet introducing a forced-convection flow of liquid helium. In this system, the flow through the cooling channel between the winding layers is generated by a screw rotating in a cylinder surrounding the magnet. A small experimental device composed of an AC superconducting magnet and a rotating screw was manufactured. The screw was rotated by an extended driving shaft. The experimental result shows that the stability of the magnet is improved by the rotation of the screw. That is, the thermal disturbance (heater input power) which generates the quench of the magnet increases as the rotational speed of the screw does. It is expected that this technique can be successfully applied to superconducting AC power apparatuses as transformers or reactors.