Open AccessA proposal for a lightweight, large current superconducting cable for aviation
Author(s) -
S. Yamaguchi,
Masae Kanda
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
superconductor science and technology/superconductor science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.033
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1361-6668
pISSN - 0953-2048
DOI - 10.1088/1361-6668/abbdc2
Subject(s) - conductor , current (fluid) , electrical conductor , materials science , power cable , voltage , power (physics) , nuclear engineering , electrical engineering , direct current , superconductivity , high voltage , environmental science , composite material , physics , engineering , layer (electronics) , quantum mechanics
More Electric Aircraft (MEA) is one of the most important subjects for designing the next generation of aircraft. Since we cannot ground the electric power systems of a flying aircraft and the air insulation voltage is lower at high altitude, a low voltage, direct current (DC) aircraft electrical system is preferable for a MEA. Since the current must be high to supply high power, we consider high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology because it handles large currents well. We propose a new HTS cable in this paper. The cable uses a stacked conductor, with oppositely directed current in each HTS tape, a structure that has already been shown to be feasible for low voltage cables. It enhances the critical current compared to a single tape conductor, especially for Bi2223 tape. In order to avoid a current imbalance in the stacked conductor, we use the current lead resistance rather than a Roebel conductor design. Then the critical current remains high, and this is confirmed by measurements. The cryogenic pipe will be made of magnesium-lithium alloy, one of the lightest metals available at the present time. We estimate the weight-to-current ratio per unit length to be less than 0.5 kg/A/km at the liquid nitrogen operational temperature of 77 K, lighter than conventional copper cable. If instead we use liquid hydrogen at 20 K, we expect a value less than 0.1 kg/A/km, which is one of the lowest presently achievable values and satisfies the requirements for MEA.