17,699 research outputs found
Superconductivity: A Breakthrough in Electrical Technology
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) sponsored a Congressional briefing on high temperature superconductivity (HTS) technologies, which promise lower costs, less pollution, more capacity and other advantages in the transmission of an electric current. All of these advantages are crucial as electricity demand increases and the present infrastructure of wires, transformers and generating plants reaches dangerous levels of obsolescence.The burgeoning energy needs of the United States are not likely to be met by simply building more transmission lines and generating plants. According to the panel of speakers, HTS power applications, which are being tested in several U.S. locations, are expensive and must prove themselves in trials, but the future of the technology is very bright. Superconductors can carry unusually large amounts of electricity without resistance energy losses. Electric power equipment using superconductors typically have double the power capacity with only half the energy losses of the same-sized conventional counterparts. This would have a major impact in reducing the eight to ten percent of power generated that is now lost before reaching the consumer. In addition, HTS has a lower pollution potential because, among other reasons, no oil is needed for transformers and underground cables.High temperature superconductivity was initially discovered in 1986, and research and development by government and private industry has been devoted to HTS for more than 12 years. It is referred to as high temperature because the cooling necessary for HTS is at the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, which is minus 323 degrees Fahrenheit. For comparison, helium, which is used medically in magnetic resistant imaging (MRI), has a boiling point of minus 452 degrees. Because helium costs about $10 for a two-liter bottle compared to liquid nitrogen costing about 25 cents for the same size bottle, it is unrealistic to contemplate helium for "real world" generation and transmission of electricity
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Next Steps for Hydrogen - physics, technology and the future
Hydrogen has been proposed as a future energy carrier for more than 40 years. In recent decades, impetus has been given by the need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. In addition, hydrogen has the potential to facilitate the large-scale deployment of variable renewables in the electricity system. Despite such drivers, the long-anticipated hydrogen economy is proving to be slow to emerge. This report stresses the role that physics and physics-based technology could play in accelerating the large-scale deployment of hydrogen in the energy system.
Emphasis is given to the potential of cryogenic liquid hydrogen and the opportunities afforded by developments in nanoscience for hydrogen storage and use. The use of low-temperature liquid hydrogen opens up a technological opportunity separate from, but complementary with, energy applications. The new opportunity is the ability to cool novel materials into the superconducting state without the need to use significant quantities of expensive liquid helium. Two of the authors have previously coined the term “hydrogen cryomagnetics” for when liquid hydrogen is utilised in high-field and high-efficiency magnets. The opportunity for liquid hydrogen to displace liquid helium may be a relatively small business opportunity compared to global transport energy
demands, but it potentially affords an opportunity to kick-start the wider commercial use of hydrogen.
The report considers various important factors shaping the future for hydrogen, such as competing production methods and the importance of safety, but throughout it is clear that science and engineering are of central importance to hydrogen innovation and physics has an important role to play
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An Electric-Circuit Model on the Inter-Tape Contact Resistance and Current Sharing for REBCO Cable and Magnet Applications
REBCO coated conductor has demonstrated high current capacity that can enable high-field magnets for high energy physics and fusion applications. However, quench protection is still one of the main challenges to be addressed for these applications. In addition, Ic and n value variations along the length of REBCO tapes exist in commercial production. The inter-tape contact resistance plays a key role to develop the self protection capability in cables and magnets by enabling current sharing and suppressing excessive eddy currents. Here we propose an electric-circuit model to describe the inter-tape contact resistance and its impact on the current sharing between REBCO tapes. We report the experiments on a 2-stacked tape REBCO cable with local Ic drop to validate the model. With the developed model, we study the upper limit of the contact resistance which allows current sharing between tapes. We also study the impact of variation in Ic and n values in tapes on the cable performance. Our model is expected to provide useful insight into the current sharing and target values for inter-tape contact resistance in REBCO cables and magnets for various applications
Phase dynamics of inductively coupled intrinsic Josephson junctions and terahertz electromagnetic radiation
The Josephson effects associated with quantum tunneling of Cooper pairs
manifest as nonlinear relations between the superconductivity phase difference
and the bias current and voltage. Many novel phenomena appear, such as Shapiro
steps in dc cuurent-voltage (IV) characteristics of a Josephson junction under
microwave shining, which can be used as a voltage standard. Inversely, the
Josephson effects provide a unique way to generate high-frequency
electromagnetic (EM) radiation by dc bias voltage. The discovery of cuprate
high-Tc superconductors accelerated the effort to develop novel source of EM
waves based on a stack of atomically dense-packed intrinsic Josephson junctions
(IJJs), since the large superconductivity gap covers the whole terahertz
frequency band. Very recently, strong and coherent terahertz radiations have
been successfully generated from a mesa structure of
single crystal which works both as the source
of energy gain and as the cavity for resonance. It is then found theoretically
that, due to huge inductive coupling of IJJs produced by the nanometer junction
separation and the large London penetration depth of order of of
the material, a novel dynamic state is stabilized in the coupled sine-Gordon
system, in which kinks in phase differences are developed responding
to the standing wave of Josephson plasma and are stacked alternatively in the
c-axis. This novel solution of the inductively coupled sine-Gordon equations
captures the important features of experimental observations. The theory
predicts an optimal radiation power larger than the one available to date by
orders of magnitude, and thus suggests the technological relevance of the
phenomena.Comment: review article (69 pages, 30 figures
Transistor performance of high-Tc three terminal devices based on carrier concentration modulation
Electric field effect devices and quasiparticle injection effect devices are good candidates for the realization of three terminal devices from high-T/sub c/ materials, since they take explicit advantage of the low carrier concentration in these compounds. We describe the fabrication and operation of both types of devices, and discuss their performance as transistor-like element
Proposal of a novel design for linear superconducting motor using 2G tape stacks
This paper presents a new design for a su-
perconducting linear motor (SLM). This SLM uses stacks
of second-generation (2G) superconducting tapes, which
are responsible for replacing yttrium barium copper oxide
bulks. The proposed SLM may operate as a synchronous
motor or as a hysteresis motor, depending on the load
force magnitude. A small-scale linear machine prototype
with 2G stacks was constructed and tested to investigate
the proposed SLM topology. The stator traveling magnetic
field wave was represented by several Nd-Fe-B permanent
magnets. A relative movement was produced between the
stator and the stack, and the force was measured along the
displacement. This system was also simulated by the finite
element method, in order to calculate the induced currents
in the stack and determine the electromagnetic force. The
H-formulation was used to solve the problem, and a power
law relation was applied to take into account the intrin-
sically nonlinearity of the superconductor. The simulated
and measured results were in accordance. Simulated re-
sults were extrapolated, proving to be an interesting tool to
scale up the motor in future projects. The proposed motor
presented an estimated force density of almost 500 N/kg,
which is much higher than any linear motor.This work was supported in part by the following agencies: CNPq/CAPES/INERGE, CNPq—Ci ˆ encias sem Fronteiras, FAPERJ, Catalan Government 2014- SGR-753, CONSOLIDER Excellence Network MAT2014-56063-C2-1-R and MAT2015-68994-REDC, Eurofusion EU COST ACTIONS MP1201/ MP1014/PPPT-WPMAG 2014, EUROTAPES FP7-NMP-Large-2011- 280432, FORTISSIMO FP7-2013-ICT-609029, and Spanish Govern- ment Agencies—Severo Ochoa Programme Centres of Excellence in R&D. (Corresponding author: Guilherme G. Sotelo.
AC/RF Superconductivity
This contribution provides a brief introduction to AC/RF superconductivity,
with an emphasis on application to accelerators. The topics covered include the
surface impedance of normal conductors and superconductors, the residual
resistance, the field dependence of the surface resistance, and the
superheating field.Comment: 19 pages, contribution to the CAS-CERN Accelerator School:
Superconductivity for Accelerators, Erice, Italy, 24 April - 4 May 2013,
edited by R. Baile
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