Speaker
Description
Pulsed power loads such as high-field pulsed magnets and lasers require efficient sources of energy. Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) has been investigated as a source of stored energy for a variety of applications. High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) allow SMES systems to operate at temperature higher than 20 K, making the required cryogenic systems simpler compared to the liquid helium cooled systems. Emerging HTS applications such as compact fusion are leading the development of high ampacity HTS cables. The high-ampacity HTS cable designs are also suitable for SMES applications. In pursuit of finding an efficient energy source that can supply the required multi-kA current and application specific milli-second pulse shapes, we are exploring SMES. The paper will discuss the SMES designs and the electrical simulations to assess the design parameters of a SMES. The challenges of the power conditioning systems for charging SMES and transferring the energy from SMES to the pulsed loads are also discussed.
