IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 9, NO.

2, JUNE 1999 1237

Conceptual Design of a High Temperature Superconducting Generator*

Sharad K. Singh, David W. Scherbarth, Ernest S. Ortoli, Jeffrey R. Repp, Owen R. Christianson,
James H. Parker, Jr. and James W. Carr,Jr.
Westinghouse Science & Technology Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Bruce Gamble
American SuperconductorCorporation, Westborough, MA, USA

Abstract-This paper describes the conceptual design of the High A. Generator Requirements
Temperature Superconducting (HTS) generator for Mobile
Radar (MR) applications. The power system for MR consists of The generator must supply the power for the radar and all
a diesel engine, a generator, and power conditioning electronics. the auxiliaries, operate at the maximum possible efficiency,
Significant improvements in power density, performance, and
system efficiency result if the generator and the power and be configured to optimize the overall system efficiency.
electronics are cryogenically cooled. The generator supplies The auxiliaries consist of coolers for the subsystems,
power to the radar and the auxiliaries of the system. The electronic equipment, and air conditioners and require a total
generator output required is less than 50 volt ac (rm phase to of about 150 kW at 120/208 volt, 3-phase, and 60 Hz. The
neutral) to maximize the efficiency of the cryogenically cooled power requirements for the radar is about 850 kW which is
power electronics. The auxiliaries of the system consume power rectified into dc and is passed through power conditioning
at 120 volt ac, 3-phase, at 60 Hertz. The generator is designed to devices before being used by the antenna. The power
meet both requirements. The diesel engine provides the prime generated for the antenna is to be I 50 volt ac per phase. This
power to the generator at 1800 rpm. The generator is a four-pole requirement eliminates the need for a heavy and bulky voltage
two stator winding machine supplying power at 50 volt ac, 60
Hertz, 12-phase to the power electronics, and 120 volt ac, 60 step-down transformer and maximizes the efficiency of the
Hertz, 3-phase to the auxiliaries of the system. The field winding power electronics. The generator is required to have 2 99%
of the generator consists of HTS coils; the stator has two ambient efficiency.
temperature air gap windings. The cooling of the field winding is
provided by heat exchange with helium gas cooled by a Gifford- 11. GENERATOR
CONFIGURATION
McMahon cryocooler.
The HTS generator, shown in Fig. 1, is driven by an 1800
I. INTRODUCTION rpm diesel engine. The generator supplies power from two
separate stator windings. The main winding supplies 850 kW
A conventional power system for a MR system consists of at 50 Vrmdphase, and the auxiliary winding supplies 150 kW
a diesel engine coupled to a conventional generator producing at 120 Vrmdphase.
electrical power which is converted into radar power by The rotating field contains four salient poles. The racetrack
power conditioning electronics, transmitheceive (TR) shaped coils have stepped boundaries so that the coil profiles
modules, and an antenna. Cryogenic cooling of the approximate the shape of saddle coils in an axial cross-section
subsystems, including the generator, power electronics, and view. The coil segments fill a sector bounded by an inner
T/R modules, will improve the system performance through radius of 0.19 m, an outer radius of 0.24 m, and subtend an
increased efficiencies and device capabilities. The improved
MR performance due to cryogenic cooling results in increased
radar output for the same amount of fuel consumption and
reduced overall mass and volume of the system [l], [2]. A
number of generator design options were investigated before
selecting one [3]. This paper describes the conceptual design
of the selected HTS generator concept for the MR system.

'Manuscript received September 15, 1998.

This work was supported by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Output Bur
and the Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate. Fig. 1. HTS rotor and stator assembly.

1051-8223/99$10.00 0 1999 IEEE

 1238

arc of 25 degrees. The straight length of the racetrack coils is stator coils are made of standard copper Litz cable and are
0.41 m, and the straight length of the stator windings is 0.46 formed and inserted into the slots in a conventional manner.
m. The stator c.oils are full pitch, covering a 90 degree arc. The low voltage requirements dictate a minimum of series
This general configuration and geometry of rotor and stator connections and turns. In the main winding a single turn
coils provide the required levels of voltage, power, and produces the required output of 50 volts, so there are no
efficiency. series connections in this winding. All coils of each phase are
connected to a 12-phase output bus. For the auxiliary winding
A. Rotor Configuration three coils in series produce the required 120 volts, and the
coils of each phase are connected in series groups of three
The central part of the rotor contains three main concentric with four groups in parallel to a 3-phase output bus.
structures. The innermost of these sections is the field coil After insertion in the slots, the coils are held in place with
vessel, which is a stainless steel vessel containing the four slot wedges, and a glass epoxy bore tube is added to provide
field coils and the helium gas coolant. A thermal shield is the reinforcement to the stator teeth. The wound core assembly is
middle concentric component, and the vacuum can is the vacuum pressure impregnated and placed in a stator frame
outer concentric component of the rotor. containing a laminated magnetic shield.
The field coil vessel, shown in Fig. 2, provides a sealed
containment for the field coils. Cold helium gas at a small 111. FIELD
WINDING DESIGN
gauge pressure flows inside the vessel, and a vacuum is
outside of the vessel. The vessel walls contain insulated The generator field winding design is based 011 a
vacuum feedthroughs for the field current and instrumentation multifilamentary tape superconductor in a strengthened silver
and connections for helium gas. matrix. The strengthened silver matrix is key to the generator
The ends of the inner field coil vessel are attached to stub application which subjects the windings to an average
shafts via thin-walled stainless steel torque tubes. The torque compressive stress of 4.7 MPa. Windings made by American
tubes transmit the torque between the field coil vessel and the Superconductor Corporation have been successfully tested to
stub shafts, and also support the bending moments created by loadings many times this value in cyclic testing. The current
the rotor mass being suspended between the bearing centers. density in the ceramic superconductor, which makes up
The thermal shield is a thin tube that occupies the vacuum approximately 30% of the cross-section of the wire, has
space between the field coil vessel and the outer vacuum can. improved over time as shown in Fig. 3. The performance of
This shield blocks radiation heat leak from the warm outer long length wires lags the performance of the short lengths
can to the cold inner field coil vessel. The shield consists of shown in this figure by approximately two years.
stainless steel with a copper plating. The copper plating is Typical performance presently achievable as a function of
added to the inner surface of the shield to increase axial heat field and temperature is presented in Fig. 4. The wire,
transfer from the center regions of the shield to its attachment sensitive to both field magnitude and orientation, is rnost
points on the torque tubes. sensitive to the fields perpendicular to the broad face that is
perpendicular to the pole axis. The coils are wound hn a
B. Stator Configuration racetrack configuration with circular end turns, and are
constructed from stacked double layer pancakes. The nominal
The stator contains two concentric windings. The main baseline design has a current density of 7,000 amp/cm2in the
inner winding is 850 kW, 12-phase, four-pole, and 50 Vrms. potted coil matrix. This corresponds to curent densities of
The 'auxiliary outer winding is 150 kW, 3-phase, four-pole,
and 120 Vrms. The main winding has 48 coils, and the
auxiliary winding has 36 coils. The stator core is a'thick- loo 1
walled glass epoxy tube with slots machined for the coils. All

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Support Structure Coil Connections
Fig. 3. Superconductorconfiguration and performance of scaleable shorts
Fig. 2. Field coil vessel. nt 77 v nnrl r n l f G-lA 1 .,,,l..a" 0- fl\r "...-,.,.l\"A..,.+n,. nnl.,
 1239

25000 I
well below the capability of the potted coil matrix. Local
stresses will obviously be higher, but this preliminary analysis
,E 20000 does show that the field coil system parameters are consistent
0
:15000 with a mechanically robust and reliable machine design.
E
ic v. THERMAL
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
-
2 10000
-I
The rotor thermal analysis consists of determining the heat
5000 load to the rotor, sizing the cryogenic system, and ensuring
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 that the HTS rotor will operate at the design goal of 20-30 K.
Field 0 The heat load to the rotor is due to heat conduction through
the torque tubes, current leads, instrumentation, and radiation
Fig. 4. Performance (amp/cm2) at field (perpendicular to the tape) and from the thermal shield and the end caps. Coil operating
temperature. Current densities are for the entire conductor. temperature is determined from the coil losses and the heat
transport to the coolant. An anisotropic thermal conductivity
8,800 amp/cm2 in the conductor, and 29,000 amp/cm2 in the model is developed to allow calculation of heat transport in
superconductor. Each pole has 355,000 amp-turns. different directions due to the geometry of the HTS
If the winding cooling is interrupted, the winding will conductor. The losses determine the size of the cryocooler.
gradually warm up due to external heat inputs and internal
heating. As shown in Fig. 5, warming the winding causes a A. Torque Tubes
gradual increase in dissipation and voltage drop. This
condition may be detected either by monitoring the voltage The torque tubes provide two functions, one structural and
across the winding, or with temperature sensors. Either the other thermal [4],[5]. Structurally the torque tubes
method will provide sufficient time to allow a gradual ramp transmit the torque to turn the rotor, and thermally they
down of the winding current. minimize heat conduction to the rotor by using thin-walled
stainless steel tubes, and intercepting the heat load with
I v . STRUCTURAL DESIGN AND ANALYSIS helium gas coolant along the length of the tube. The torque
tube heat load is estimated to be 0.37 W/tube at 0.5 g/s
The 2-dimensional forces on the field coil were calculated. helium gas flow.
Centrifugal spin loads, steady-state torque loads, and
electromagnetic loads at full excitation are shown in Fig. 6 as B. Current Leads
loads A-D. Load units are kN/m of axial rotor length. Coil
stresses were then estimated by assuming that loads A-D, plus Current lead heat load estimates include conduction and
radial assembly preload (surface stress E), are resolved into Joule heating. It is assumed that material properties follow the
average compressive stresses on the surfaces of the coils. Wiedermann-Franz law in the calculation. For current leads
These average surface stresses are also shown in Fig. 6 as carrying 300 A and a helium gas coolant flow rate of 0.02 g/s,
items F and G. The largest stress is 4.7 MPa, which occurs on the heat leak is 0.9 W per lead.
the coil surface facing the quadrature axis. This stress level is

20 30 40 50
Winding Temperature (K) Fig. 6. 2-D forces on rotor field coils. Load A) tangential electromagnetic
load is 240 kN/m. Load B) radial electromagnetic load is 60 kN/m. Load C)
centrifugal load is 310 kN/m. Load D) torque load is 10 kN/m. Loads A-D,
Fig. 5. Anticipated winding dissipation (W) as a function of temperature. plus radial preload E, produce average coil surface stresses F and G.
 1240

TABLE 11
C. Conduction Losses for Instrumentation EFFICIENCY
SUMMARY -
Rotor Refrigeration 715 W
Ambient Stator Windings 4206 W
The conduction heat losses due to instrumentation, eight Magnetic Shield 3695 W
voltage taps on four coils, four temperature sensors with 16 Bearings, Seals, & Collector 1727 W -
leads, and two voltage taps on each current lead, are Total Losses 10343 W
negligible. The instrumentation wires are 32 AWG manganin
Efficiency 99.0% -
to reduce heat conduction losses.
second compressor and heat exchangers to the GM cryocool.er
D.Radiation Heat Load primary loop, and is similar to a multistage cryocooller
described by Gifford [6]. A second suggested cooling
A thermal shield is placed outside the field coil vessel to architecture consists of conduction cooling with fiber glass-
reduce the radiation heat load. It is a stainless steel tube for reinforced epoxy torque tubes to reduce the heat load to the
strength with copper plating added to reduce axial rotor, cooling strips on the rotor to reduce temperature
temperature gradients along the tube. The ends of the thermal gradients, and possibly uses ‘rotating cold heads and
shield intercept the torque tube at the 50 K ‘location. A regenerators to reduce rotating couplings.
detailed analysis solving the heat conduction equation along
the shield and adding the Stefan-Boltzmann equation as a VI. SUMMARY AND EFFICIENCY
source results in a temperature distribution in the shield and
estimates a heat load of 0.013 W. The Mobile Radar generator consists of four HTS coils
An additional radiation heat load is due to the end caps comprising the field winding and two ambient stator windings
with an area of 0.13 mz and which are mounted on the torque producing 850 kW at 50 volts and 150 kW at 120 volts with
tubes at the 50 K location. The heat load is 0.004 W. Without an overall efficiency of 99.0%. Total losses and efficiency
end caps the radiation heat load is 5.8 W. are summarized in Table 11.

E. Heat Load - Rotor Refrigeration Requirements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The heat loads are summarized in Table 1. The total heat
load to the cold rotor coil winding is approximately 5 W. This research was sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense
Using a coefficient of performance of 0.007 for a 20 K GM Organization Science and Technology Directorate
cryocooler gives a 715 W input power to the cryocooler. At (BMDORO) and managed by the Air Force Research
20-30 K Joule heating of the HTS conductor is negligible, Laboratory ( A F E P R ) at Wright Patterson Air Force Base,
and the 0.45 W of coil losses are from Joule heating in the Contract Number F33615-91-C-2720.
copper connections between field coils. Joule heating in the
HTS conductor becomes significant at temperatures of 40-45
REFERENCES
K. The cooling system is designed to remove 5 W of HTS
Joule heating, thus allowing for stable operation in this [I] 0. R. Christianson, N. P. McQuin, and S. K. Singh, “Mobile radar
elevated temperature range. cryogenic system evaluation,” Westinghouse STC Contract Required
Report # 97-9TM2-CRYOP-R1,Wright Patterson Air Force Base,
Subcontract # 97-S418-22-C1, December 12, 1997.
F. Cooling Architecture
[2] M. L. Ramalingam, B. D. Donovan, T. Lamp, and J. E. Beam, “System
analysis for a cryogenic aerospace terrestrial radar power system,”
The cooling system consists of a GM cryocooler and a IECEC ‘96, Paper #96-076.
secondary helium gas cooling loop to the HTS coils with a [3] S. K. Singh, 0. R. Christianson, P. L. Lamm, and J. E. Beam, “High
temperature superconducting generator for a mobile radar system,”
IECEC ‘ 98, Paper # 98-323.
TABLE I [4] J. L. Smith, Jr., J. L. Kirtley, Jr., P. Thullen, and H. H. Woodson, ‘‘ElEI
HEATLOADSUMMARY- REFRIGERATION
REQUIREMENTS program on large superconducting synchronous machines,” Proc. .
Conduction Losses 2.54 W Applied Superconductivity Conference, Annapolis, 1972, IEEE no.
Radiation Losses 0.017 W 72CH0682-S-TABSC.
Coil Losses 0.45 W [SIJ. H. Parker, Jr., R. D. Blaugher, A. Patterson, P. D. Vecchio, and J. L.
Helium Transfer Losses 2.0 W McCabria, “A high speed superconducting rotor,” IEEE Trans. on
Thermal Heat Load 5.007 W Mugnerics, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 640-645, 1975.
GM COP 0.007 [6]W. E. Gifford and T. E. Hoffman, “A new refrigeration system for 4.2
Input Power 715 W K,” Adv. Cryog. Eng. 6, pp. 82-94, 1961.