AC loss and critical current characterization of a noninductive coil of two-in-hand RABiTS YBCO tape for fault current limiter applications

The combination of noninductive winding and the two-in-hand tape configuration has been found to be very effective in reducing the AC loss of coils of RABiTS (TM) YBCO coated conductor for fault current limiting (FCL) applications. In this study, a noninductive coil composed of 11 turns of two-in-hand RABiTS T YBCO tape was designed and constructed for characterizing and investigating the AC loss, critical current and inductance. The AC losses in this coil were also calculated by finite element modeling (FEM) using the COMSOL Multiphysics package. With the magnetic field dependent permeability and ferromagnetic loss of the substrate material taken into account, the simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The simulations therefore were employed to study the effect on the AC loss behavior of the coil of the width of YBCO tape and of the spatial separation between the coil turns to suggest a more effective coil design.