Numerical Calculation and Experimental Verification of Inductance and Critical Current Characteristics in a Solenoidal SMES Magnet

This paper presents a numerical model for evaluating the inductance and critical current characteristics in solenoid-type superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) magnets. The inductance submodel covers the estimations of self and mutual inductances among the single-pancake coils, double-pancake coils, and solenoidal magnets. The critical current submodel reveals the transient critical current characteristics such as the minimum critical current and initial quenching position inside one specific magnet. As a case study, numerical calculation and experimental verification of a small-scale ReBCO magnet are investigated. Being verified by both the simulations and experiments, the proposed SMES model can be expected to evaluate the energy storage property prior to practical magnet fabrication.