AC losses in noninductive SFCL solenoidal coils wound by parallel conductors

Large scale resistive superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) have attracted great interest in electric power systems and aviation applications due to their compactness, lightweight, automatic fault current limiting, and fast recovery characteristics. Noninductive coil wound with stacked conductors in parallel connection is commonly used to achieve high current rating for SFCL. It is of great significance and engineering value to minimize ac losses in the noninductive coil by optimizing the configuration of the stacked conductors in order to reduce the thermal load for the cooling system. In this article, multiple possible configurations of noninductive stacks where each turn is composed of one, two, and three conductors, respectively, were proposed. Numerical models were developed to investigate the effect of noninductive stack configuration on ac loss. Eight-turn noninductive solenoidal coils wound with the noninductive stacks mentioned in the above were also simulated. It is concluded that the configuration of the noninductive stack significantly affects the perpendicular magnetic field distribution in the end edges of the stack. Single-layer configurations have limited magnetic field cancellation effect. The stack configuration with low ac loss and simple structure was suggested.