Vertical and Horizontal Force Measurements of a Double Crossed Loop

Superconducting coils made from REBCO coated conductors are widely researched for various applications. Amongst the many HTS coil designs in the literature, the double crossed loop (DCL) coils are an interesting possibility for trapped flux and induced current applications, such as magnetic bearings. The DCL coils were proposed, simulated, and tested in small-scale prototypes as proof of concept in previous works. Recent works dealt with the modeling challenges concerning the correct representation of the induced currents. The present study aims to investigate a larger scale magnetic bearing designed and built using DCL coils as a substitute for an existent and validated magnetic bearing made with HTS bulks. The proposed bearing is presented here, where the practical results from the previous study provided guidelines for a better design concerning levitation forces for the DCL coils. The bearing performance is measured via levitation force tests (vertical and lateral displacements) against the permanent magnet assembly from the original bearing. Such results are compared with the previous prototype and allow to verify the DCL coil bearing reliability.