Investigation on the performance of DI-BSCCO superconducting electric motor

Chin Kat Meng, Nasri A. Hamid, Mohd. Yusri Abd. Rahman

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DOI: 10.4236/ns.2011.31004                

Abstract

Superconducting electrical devices have been developed in various fields especially in industrial energy over a decade. Superconducting motor is one of the electrical devices that attracted the attention of engineers and researchers from the universities and industries due to its distinctive energy efficiency. This paper describes the performance of superconducting electric motor and its performance was compared with conventional copper electric motor. Direct current (DC) synchronous single- phase series motor has been chosen as the base for development of both motors. Two prototypes of electric motor fabricated using conventional copper coil and superconducting coil were developed with similar motor type, design, dimension, and features. The superconducting motor coil was wound using Bi-2223 (DI-BSCCO) Type H wires developed by Sumitomo Electric Industries Limited, Japan. A finite element analysis was performed to get a clear view on flux plots of the magnetic induction. Features of the superconducting motor and the special coil frame designed to protect the superconducting wire was also presented in this paper. In addition, the torque performances for both types of motor were measured. The superconducting electric motor was found to consume lower power to produce the same output compared with the conventional copper-wound motor.

Keywords

Superconductor; Magnetic flux; Finite Element Analysis; Electric Motor

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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