Numerical Study on AC Loss of an HTS Coil Placed on Laminated Silicon Steel Sheets With Distorted AC Transport Currents

AC loss is an intractable and inevitable issue on high temperature superconducting (HTS) coils. In some HTS devices with the iron core, AC loss in HTS coils have been investigated. However, practically, partial distorted currents can flow in HTS coils, and the AC loss in this situation has rarely been conducted. Here, a normal and distorted current were respectively applied into a double-layer racetrack coil (DRC) to induce AC losses. The numerical and experimental results were obtained with and without laminated silicon steel sheets (LSSS), which showed that the AC loss of the DRC significantly increased when put on the LSSS. Furthermore, compared with the loss generated by the fundamental waveform, currents with 3rd harmonic in phase and 5th out of phase, both with 10% total harmonic distortion (THD) could increase AC loss by 9.3% and 7.8%, respectively. To reduce AC loss of the DRC on the LSSS, two methods are proposed, and it is found that increasing the 5 mm distance vertically and horizontally between the DRC and LSSS could significantly decrease the AC loss by 20.7% and 18.0%, respectively. This study could offer an indispensable reference for designing and operating HTS coils with the iron core for AC applications.