Analysis and Comparison Between No-Insulation and Metallic Insulation REBCO Magnet for the Engineering Design of a 1-MW DC Induction Heater

A 1-MW industrial-scale high-temperature superconductor (HTS) dc induction heater is being designed and manufactured in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. This paper is to present the design and engineering analysis of a HTS magnet with iron yoke for this heater. This magnet is to generate a 0.5-T dc magnetic field in the iron's air gap, where the billet is rotated. To enhance the thermal stability, the no-insulation (NI) coil and metallic insulation (MI) coil (co-wind with stainless steel strips) is introduced to the magnet. The influence of the NI&MI technique on the magnet's ramping process is analyzed. A significant ramping delay occurs on both the NI and MI magnet. Joules losses are generated by the current “bypassing” through turn-to-turn contacts, which may lead to significant temperature rise on the coils. Higher ramping rate often means faster ramping process and higher temperature rise induced by ramping loss. The MI magnet shows a much shorter ramping time and lower ramping loss than its NI counterpart, due to higher turn-to-turn resistivity. The MI coil is more suitable than the NI coil for this large-scale magnet.