Creating and maintaining strong magnetic fields using high-temperature superconductors (HTS) is an important step in improving many technologies, such as HTS motors, NMR/MRI and nuclear fusion. Conventional power supplies are ill-suited to providing the high DC current required to magnetise hightemperature superconducting coils due to their lossy nature and a variety of other factors.
Flux pumps offer a promising method of providing and maintaining the magnetising current through wireless current injection. They can be divided into two categories as dynamo flux pumps and transformer-rectifier flux pumps. Transformer-rectified flux pumps offer the advantage of not having moving mechanical parts, but driving such a system is complicated, as it requires an efficient and controllable current source on the primary side. The rectification process can also be quite complex to ensure minimal losses are introduced.
The primary goal of this research project is to develop an efficient driver circuit that is able to source a controllable current to drive primary side of a transformer-rectifier flux pump. After conducting a thorough literature survey, a driver circuit will be developed and designed to meet the requirements listed below. A prototype will be constructed to confirm the viability of the proposed design experimentally. To simplify experimental validation, a solid-state rectifier will be used on the secondary.
Specifications:
Current - 3 A
Voltage - 40 V
Slew Rate - 150 A/s
Frequency - 5 Hz
Undergraduate
- Development of the driver circuitry for a transformer-rectified flux pump
- Development of a simple secondary rectifier
- Prototyping and testing to validate functionality
ELECTENG 734
Green Electronics (405.712, Lab)