Behaviour of a flux pump using an automatic superconducting switch

✍ Scribed by K.J. Carroll

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 642 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-2275
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-2275(73)90062-3

✦ Synopsis

A simple kind of magnetic flux pump, consisting of a small superconducting coil L I in parallel with a superconducting magnet L 2, has been constructed and tested. The device is attached to the secondary of a transformer and the entire assembly rests in a liquid hefium bath. Persistent currents in L 2 are generated by a power supply which can be made particularly simple if an axial magnetic field H b is applied to L 1 to make its critical current sense-dependent. Circuits analysis shows that the rate of flux pumping is dependent on the magnitude of the power supply output and the final persistent current level is related to H b. These results are confirmed by experiments in which several circuit parameters were varied. A typical experiment generated 35 A in a small magnet in about 10 minutes. Suggestions are made for improvements on this behaviour.