Feasibility study of oxide superconducting transformers for Shinkansen rolling stock

A feasibility study of an oxide superconducting transformer for Shinkansen rolling stock was made from the viewpoint of light weight. On the basis of the observed critical current and AC loss properties for the currently developed Bi2223 silver-sheathed superconducting wires, which both have large anisotropy, superconducting transformers cooled by subcooled liquid nitrogen with the same specifications as the conventional ones were designed. The total weight of the transformer system including a cryocooler was quantitatively evaluated. As compared with the weight of conventional ones, the optimum winding configuration and 1-turn voltage were searched for. As a result, the following suggestion was obtained. For the sake of light weight, the transformer should be core type with closely wound cylindrical windings so as to reduce the perpendicular magnetic field to the wide surface of superconducting thin wires and the AC loss in a superconducting wire needs to be much reduced as compared with the currently developed one. Finally, according to the obtained optimum parameters, the conceptual design of a single-phase 4 MVA-25 kV superconducting transformer for Shinkansen rolling stock was performed whereby the drastic reduction of weight was shown.