Design and Evaluation of a Protection Method Based on Controllable Resistance for Meter-Class REBCO No-Insulation Pancake Coils

In this paper, we proposed a variable protective resistor that realizes controllable energy dissipation and temperature inhibition for the no-insulation (NI) HTS coil-systems, during sudden discharging. The resistor is paralleled with the meter-class bore NI coil, which aims to be used in a high-field magnetic resonance imaging scanner (MRI), to avoid burn-out and shorten restart time of the coil when it has to be shut-down during an accident. To establish the relationship between the value of protective resistor, the energy dissipation and the temperature increase during sudden discharging for the NI coil, in this study, a numerical analysis coupled with a partial element equivalent circuit and a thermal analysis was conducted. Based on the results, the mechanism that how a protective resistor shares energy dissipation and inhibits temperature increase, has been clarified. Meanwhile, the effects of the value of protective resistor on the discharging behavior and temperature increase of NI pancake coil during sudden discharging, were also evaluated to verify the feasibility of this protection method in the application of MRI.