AC Losses and Their Thermal Effect in High-Temperature Superconducting Machines

In transient operations or fault conditions, high-temperature superconducting (HTS) machines suffer ac losses, which have an influence on the thermal stability of superconducting windings. In this paper, a method to calculate ac losses and their thermal effect in HTS machines is presented. The method consists of three submodels that are coupled only in one direction. The magnetic field distribution is first solved in a machine model, assuming a uniform current distribution in HTS windings. The magnetic fields on the boundaries are then used as inputs for an ac loss model that has a homogeneous approximation and solves the H formulation. Afterward, the computed ac losses are considered as the heat source in a thermal model to study the temperature profile in HTS windings. The method proposed is able to evaluate ac losses and their thermal effect, thus providing a reference to design an HTS machine and its cooling system.