• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.34-37
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• 2023

The practical application of REBCO coated conductor (CC) tapes, vital for energy transmission (e.g., cable application) and high-field magnets (e.g., coil application), necessitates efficient and simple quality assessment procedures. This study introduces a systematic approach to assess the electromechanical properties of REBCO CC tapes under 77 K and self-field conditions. The approach involves customized tensile and bending tests that clarify the critical current (I_c) response of the CC tapes under mechanical loads induced by tension and bending. This study measures the retained Ic values of commercially available GdBCO CC tapes under 250 MPa tensile stress and 40 mm bending diameter. Through experimentation, the study demonstrates the resilience of these tapes and their suitability for applications. By presenting a simplified stress-based analysis and a bending test of the tapes, the study contributes to effective quality assessment methods for the development of practical superconducting products.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.38-45
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• 2006

The superconducting fault current limiters(SFCLs) provide the effect such as enhancement in power system reliability due to limiting the fault current within a few miliseconds. Among various SFCLs we have developed a flux-lock type SFCL and exploited a special design to effectively reduce the fault current according to properly adjustable magnetic field after the short-circuit test. This SFCL consists of two copper coils wound in parallel on the same iron core and a component using the YBCO thin film connected in series to the secondary copper coil. Meanwhile, operating characteristics can be controlled by adjusting the inductances and the winding directions of the coils. To analyze the operational characteristics, we compared closed-loop with open-loop iron core. When the applied voltage was 200[Vrms] in the additive polarity winding, the peak values of the line current the increased up to 30.71[A] in the closed-loop and 32.01[A] in the open-loop iron core, respectively. On the other hand, in the voltages generated at current limiting elements were 220.14[V] in the closed-loop and 142.73[V] in the opal-loop iron core during first-half cycle after fault instant under the same conditions. We confirmed that the open-loop iron core had lower power burden than in the closed-loop iron core. Consequently, we found that the structure of iron core enabled the flux-lock type SFCL at power system to have the flexibility.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.437-442
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• 2017

Previously, studies on compensation material to increase the signal intensity have been conducted which does not affect the reading of images. However, the compensation material has a concern on patient infection as it is attached directly on the skin. Therefore, in this study, we tested an indirect attachment of the compensation material as an alternative method of the direct attachment. The silicon compensation material was fabricated in the form of a cylindrical bar and attached to each element of the 8 channel head coil. Then the signal intensities of the water phantom pre and post application of the silicon were measured. T1 and T2-weighted images were acquired using an 8-channel head coil and a 3.0T superconducting MRI. Signal intensities were measured by using an image measuring program. Paired t-test was used to verify if there were significant differences. The signal intensity before application of the silicon was significantly increased by 3.39% and 2.62% in T1 and T2 weighted images, respectively. Although the indirect attachment method had a limitation to completely replace the existing method, it was considered to be useful in patients with infectious diseases such as diabetic complications since it had a meaningful improvement in signal intensity based on the filling factor increase.

• Proceedings of the KSMRM Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.103-105
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• 2003

After fifteen years of development, Magnetic Resonance (MR) technology for human imaging and spectroscopy is reaching a refined state with FDA approved 3T clinical products from Siemens, GE, and Philips. Broker has cleared CE approval with a 4T system. Varian supports a 4T system platform as well. Shielded magnets are standard at 3T from GE, Oxford, Magnex, and IGC. A shielded 4T whole body magnet is available from Oxford. Stronger switched gradients and dynamic shim coils, desired at any field, areespecially useful at higher static magnetic fields B0. In addition to the higher currents required for higher resolution slice or volume selection afforded by higher SNR, whole body gradient coils will be driven at increasing slew rates to meet the needs of new cardiac applications and other requirements. For example 3T and 4T systems are now being equipped with 2kV, 500A gradient coils and amplifiers capable of generating 4G/cm in 200msec, over a 67+/-cm bore diameter. High field EPI applications require oscillation rates at 1 kHz and higher. To achieve a benchmark 0.2 ppm shim over a 30cm sphere in a high field magnet, at least four stages of shimming need to be considered. 1) A good high field magnet will be built to a homogeneity spec. falling in the range of 100 to 150 ppm over this 30cm spherical "sweet spot" 2) Most modern high field magnets will also have superconducting shim coils capable of finding 1.5 ppm by their adjustment during system installation. 3) Passive ferro-magnetic shimming combined with 4) active, high order room temperature shim coils (as many as five orders are now being recommended) will accomplish 0.2 ppm over the 30cm sphere, and 0.1 ppm over a human brain in even the highest field magnets for human studies. Safety concerns for strong, fast gradients at any B0 field include acoustic noise and peripheral nerve stimulation. One or more of the mechanical decoupling methods may lead to quieter gradients. Patient positioning relative to asymmetric or short gradient coils may limit peripheral nerve stimulation at higher slew rates. Gradient designs combining a short coil for local speed and strength with a longer coil for coverage are being developed for 3T systems. Local gradients give another approach to maximizing performance over a limited region while keeping within the physiologically imposed dB0/dt performance limits.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 2011

A Hybrid Fault Current Limiter(FCL) which has more advantages in fast response and thermal characteristics than a simple resistive FCL had been proposed by our group. The Hybrid FCL consists of a resistive FCL for the magnitude of the first peak of fault current, and a fast switch for detecting fault current and generating the repulsive force within a cycle in fault situation. In ideal case, the impedance of the fast switch wound with two other kinds of HTS tape is negligibly zero in normal operation. But, during the fault situation, each HTS tape has different quench characteristics because of asymmetric current distribution. And this phenomenon causes effective flux and this flux opens the switch through the repulsive force applied to a metal plate of the fast switch. The magnitude of the repulsive force affects the switching characteristics of the fast switch. It should be large enough to raise the metal plate up. Otherwise the arc re-out break which are caused by not enough repulsive force to raise the metal plate up can cause unintended operation of the fast switch. In this paper, the numerical calculation of the repulsive force applied to the metal plate of the fast switch in various combinations of HTS tapes was performed by using the short-circuit test and finite element method.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.599_600
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• 2009

In superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems, the current leads are usually divided into two parts. Normal metals like brass or copper are often used in the first part from the room temperature to the 1st stage of the cryocooler. Their dimensions were decided to minimize the conduction heat penetration and Ohm's heat generation. The second part down to the cryogenic coil is made of high temperature superconductor (HTS). HTS current leads can reduce the conductive heat penetration because they have poor thermal conductivity and generate no Ohm's heat generation. The brass current lead and the HTS current lead were designed and fabricated for application to the 10kJ class SMES system. The HTS current lead is 300A class. The HTS current lead was stacked with 2 HTS layers using the $Bi_2Sr_2Ca_2Cu_3O_x$ (BSCCO)/Ag. In this paper, we introduce the design procedure of the current leads and discuss the test results of the current leads.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.139-143
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• 2009

We have fabricated a low-noise 61-channel axial-type first-order gradiometer system for measuring fetal magnetocardiography(MCG) signals. Superconducting quantum interference device(SQUID) sensor was based on double relaxation oscillation SQUID(DROS) for detecting biomagnetic signal, such as MCG, magnetoencphalogram(MEG) and fetal-MCG. The SQUID sensor detected axial component of fetal MCG signal. The pickup coil of SQUID sensor was wound with 120 ${\mu}m$ NbTi wire on bobbin(20 mm diameter) and was a first-order gradiometer to reject the environment noise. The sensors have low white noise of 3 $fT/Hz^{1/2}$ at 100 Hz on average. The fetal MCG was measured from $24{\sim}36$ weeks fetus in a magnetically shielded room(MSR) with shielding factor of 35 dB at 0.1 Hz and 80 dB at 100 Hz(comparatively mild shielding). The MCG signal contained maternal and fetal MCG. Fetal MCG could be distinguished relatively easily from maternal MCG by using independent component analysis(ICA) filter. In addition, we could observe T peak as well as QRS wave, respectively. It will be useful in detecting fetal cardiac diseases.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.139-145
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• 2012

Electric activity of cardiac muscles generates magnetic fields. Magnetocardiography (or MCG) technology, measuring these magnetic signals, can provide useful information for the diagnosis of heart diseases. It is already about 40 years ago that the first measurement of MCG signals was done by D. Cohen using SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) sensor inside a magnetically shielded room. In the early period of MCG history, bulky point-contact RF-SQUID was used as the magnetic sensor. Thanks to the development of Nb-based Josephson junction technology in mid 1980s and new design of tightly-coupled DC-SQUID, low-noise SQUID sensors could be developed in late 1980s. In around 1990, several groups developed multi-channel MCG systems and started clinical study. However, it is quite recent years that the true usefulness of MCG was verified in clinical practice, for example, in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. For the practical MCG system, technical elements of MCG system should be optimized in terms of performance, fabrication cost and operation cost. In this review, development history, technical issue, and future development direction of MCG technology are described.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.59-63
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• 2016

The superconducting NMR magnets have used cryogen such as liquid helium for their cooling. The conduction cooling method using cryocoolers, however, makes the cryogenic cooling system for NMR magnets more compact and user-friendly than the cryogen cooling method. This paper describes the thermal and structural analysis of a cryogenic conduction cooling system for a 400 MHz HTS NMR magnet, focusing on the magnet assembly. The highly thermo-conductive cooling plates between HTS double pancake coils are used to transfer the heat generated in coils, namely Joule heating at lap splice joints, to thermal link blocks and finally the cryocooler. The conduction cooling structure of the HTS magnet assembly preliminarily designed is verified by thermal and structural analysis. The orthotropic thermal properties of the HTS coil, thermal contact resistance and radiation heat load are considered in the thermal analysis. The thermal analysis confirms the uniform temperature distribution for the present thermal design of the NMR magnet within 0.2 K. The mechanical stress and the displacement by the electromagnetic force and the thermal contraction are checked to verify structural stability. The structural analysis indicates that the mechanical stress on each component of the magnet is less than its material yield strength and the displacement is acceptable in comparison with the magnet dimension.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.20-23
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• 2013

For sensitive measurements of micro-Tesla nuclear magnetic resonance (${\mu}T$-NMR) signal, a low-noise superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) system is needed. We have fabricated a liquid He dewar for an SQUID having a large diameter for the pickup coil. The initial test of the SQUID system showed much higher low-frequency magnetic noise caused by the thermal magnetic noise of the aluminum plates used for the vapor-cooled thermal shield material. The frequency dependence of the noise spectrum showed that the noise increases with the decrease of frequency. This behavior could be explained from a two-layer model; one generating the thermal noise and the other one shielding the thermal noise by eddy-current shielding. And the eddy-current shielding effect is strongly dependent on the frequency through the skin-depth. To minimize the loop size for the fluctuating thermal noise current, we changed the thermal shield material into insulated thin Cu mesh. The magnetic noise of the SQUID system became flat down to 0.1 Hz with a white noise of 0.3 $fT/{\surd}Hz$, including the other noise contributions such as SQUID electronics and magnetically shielded room, etc, which is acceptable for low-noise ${\mu}T$-NMR experiments.