Characteristics of the Superconducting Field Winding of an HTS Wind Turbine Generator during a Short Circuit Fault

Abstract

High temperature superconducting generators (HTSGs) have great potential of high power density for future large direct-drive wind turbines. As synchronous machines, HTSGs have rapid rise of field currents during a sudden short circuit fault which cause AC losses in the HTS tapes. This paper applies H-A formulation of Maxwell equations for finite element simulation of electromagnetic behavior of a 10 MW, 9.6 rpm HTSGs. The model is integrated to a short circuit model to calculate the characteristics of the HTS field winding, such as field currents and AC losses during a three-phase no-load short circuit fault at the armature winding terminal. Two HTSG designs are compared. The $n$ value characterizing the sharpness of the superconducting-resistive state transition of the HTS tape and the number of armature winding segments are analyzed as key variables. The result indicates high AC losses are produced but more armature winding segments can effectively reduce the AC loss and the field current. A lower $n$ value can also lower the AC loss level but only for the non-magnetic rotor design. The field current is not affected by the $n$ value for both HTSG designs.