• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2011

A hybrid superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) with fast switch had been previously suggested by our research group. To make a hybrid SFCL, different superconducting wires were wound two pancake coils so that two pancake coils had asymmetric configuration. The impedance of the asymmetric non-inductive coils are zero with applied normal current. However during the fault. currents were distributed unequally into the two pancake coils because each superconducting wires have different electrical characteristics. This unequal distribution of current causes effective magnetic flux which generate repulsive force. Fast switch was thus opened by the force applied to the aluminum plate which consists of SFCL. In this paper, the AC loss characteristics of the asymmetric non-inductive coils with combinations of superconducting wires were studied and calculated by related experiments and finite element method (FEM) simulation. From these results, we suggested the appropriate combination of two superconducting wires to be used for the asymmetric non-inductive coils.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-45
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• 2011

Hybrid fault current limiters (FCL) have been researched at Yonsei University. The hybrid FCL has advantages such as having a rapid response to a sudden fault situation and a fast recovery time from a quench. It consists of an asymmetric HTS coil, a switching module, and a bypass reactor. The asymmetric HTS coil is wound with two different types of HTS wires in an opposite direction so that it has nearly zero inductance at the superconducting state. When the quench occurs at the fault state, a strong magnetic field is generated from the asymmetric coil because of different quench characteristics of two HTS wires, and then a repulsive force is induced in the switching module. The force opens the switch and the fault current is pushed into the bypass reactor. In this research, we analyzed the cause of the repulsive force and confirmed, experimentally and computationally, that the magnitude of a repulsive force is varied by changing the gap distance between the asymmetric coil and the switching module. By using the FEM simulation, we calculated the repulsive force with respect to the gap distance and verified that the effect of the gap distance. Then, short circuit test was carried out to confirm the correct operation of the fast switch.

• 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.