Impact of the radius of double pancake windings on the electromagnetic behavior of high temperature superconducting transformer

Abstract

Purpose

It has constantly been important to investigate the distribution of magnetic fields in high temperature superconducting (HTS) transformers because the high magnetic field applied to the HTS tapes reduces the critical current and increases the ac losses. The purpose of this study is investigation of the impact of the radius of double pancake windings on the electromagnetic behavior of HTS transformer. In this paper, by changing the radius of the windings in a step-by-step manner in two modes, the electromagnetic behaviors in double pancakes (DPs) of a single-phase HTS transformer have been investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper a 15.4 kVA single-phase HTS transformer has been designed and simulated using the finite element method, using COMSOL multiphysics software. The effect of changing the radius of the low-voltage (LV) and high-voltage (HV) windings on the electromagnetic parameters such as distribution of circulating currents and magnetic field in the LV DP windings has been investigated.

Findings

According to the results, by increasing the radius of the LV winding, the electromagnetic behavior of the highest and lowest DPs becomes highly undesirable, while in other DPs, it becomes desirable. The same thing happens by increasing the radius of the LV and HV windings, but with much less intensity. Therefore, according to Ce, the most optimal case is when the two windings (HV and LV) are close to each other and to the core, and if the radius needs to be increased, it is better to increase the radius of both windings.

Originality/value

For the first time, the impact of the radius of DP windings on the electromagnetic behavior of HTS transformer has been investigated.

Citation

Attar, H., Moradnouri, A., Mirghaforian, R. and Hekmati, A. (2022), "Impact of the radius of double pancake windings on the electromagnetic behavior of high temperature superconducting transformer", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 41 No. 5, pp. 1753-1770. https://doi.org/10.1108/COMPEL-08-2021-0314