AC Loss Analysis of High-Temperature Superconducting Current Leads With Nonsinusoidal Current Waveform

For some high-temperature superconducting (HTS) devices, such as fusion magnet, fault current limiters (FCLs), and superconducting energy magnetic system, the ac loss of the HTS current leads is one of the most important heat sources in the cryogenic system. When HTS current lead is carrying alternating current, ac loss occurs. However, the HTS current leads of the above HTS devices usually carry the nonsinusoidal current, and the ac loss is difficult to be analyzed when the applied transport current is nonsinusoidal waveform. In this paper, we firstly proposed two kinds of structure of HTS current leads, and the ac losses of these two current leads with the specific current waveform were calculated subsequently by using finite element method software COMSOL. Furthermore, the ac losses of two structure current leads were measured by using the integral method, respectively. Finally, the ac loss results of these two structures of current leads were compared and analyzed theoretically and experimentally, which aims to select the preferred structure of current lead for HTS applications in terms of ac loss.