THERMAL FATIGUE TEST APPARATUS FOR LARGE SUPERCONDUCTING COILS

ABSTRACT The United States Navy has a continued interest in the development of High Temperature Superconductivity (HTS) to provide power dense, efficient propulsion and electrical power generation. These machines have large HTS rotor coils that will undergo many thermal cycles during the life of the ship. Thermal fatigue tests for large coils are necessary to understand any degradation and life issues that could arise. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) has sponsored Rowan University to design and build a device that will assist in the thermal fatigue testing of a superconducting coil. It was designed to be autonomous with programmable cool down and warm-up rates and varying temperature from ambient temperature (300K) down to 77K. A typical test would include thermally cycling a coil a specified number of times, then performing a critical current test on the coil and repeating the test cycle as many times as desired. This paper introduces the thermal cycling test setup and presents preliminary calibration data.