The Structural and Electromagnetic Comparative Analysis of the Bifilar-Meander-Type Winding Method of Superconducting DC Circuit Breaker

• Published in: Energies
• Main Authors: Sang-Yong Park, Geon-Woong Kim, Ji-Sol Jeong, Hyo-Sang Choi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2023-02-01
• Subjects: superconducting fault-current-limiter; bifilar method; meander type; hybrid type; DC circuit breaker; Maxwell program
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1866

As the utilization of DC systems increases worldwide, the importance of DC cutoff technology is increasing. We proposed a hybrid DC cutoff technology combining an SFCL (superconducting fault-current-limiter) and a mechanical DC circuit breaker. This model can perform a fault-current-limiting operation through the quenching of the SFCL and a breaking operation through an artificial cutoff zero point of a mechanical DC circuit breaker. In particular, the SFCL is responsible for the growth of the initial fault current according to the DC characteristics. As the DC system’s supply and demand increase, the DC system’s capacity also increases. Therefore, the fault-current-limiting capability of the SFCL should be increased according to the increasing DC system breaking capacity. The fault-current-limiting capability can be increased by increasing the superconducting wires used in the SFCL. Current commercially available SFCLs use bifilar-helical-type and bifilar-spiral-type winding methods. These have the disadvantage of increased volume with increased capacity. To compensate for these disadvantages, we proposed a bifilar-meander-type winding method. In this paper, a new bifilar-meander-type winding method was introduced. In addition, the structural and electromagnetic parts of the existing winding method and the bifilar-meander-type winding method were compared and analyzed for differences. The program used for this analysis is the electromagnetic analysis Maxwell program. As a result, it was confirmed that the bifilar-meander-type winding method is superior to the conventional bifilar-helical and bifilar-spiral types.