A Novel Fault Diagnosis Method for High-Temperature Superconducting Field Coil of Superconducting Rotating Machine

In this paper, a new method is presented for sensitive quench detection in high-temperature superconductor (HTS) rotating machinery. The normal zone propagation velocity of an HTS is about 1000 times slower than that of a low-temperature superconductor. Therefore, the propagation of normal zone resistance, which occurs when the HTS transits from the superconducting state to the normal state, is also slower. Thus, it is difficult to detect the abnormal signals by voltage measurement using voltage taps. Moreover, the monitoring signal includes noise generated by interaction between the HTS rotating machinery and the industrial environment. Therefore, when quenching occurs in the HTS rotating machinery, a thermal runaway occurs in the hot spot. Furthermore, the magnetic energy stored in the HTS coil can damage the machinery. For these reasons, a new method is proposed for sensitive quench detection that reduces the noise generated from the power supply and from the HTS rotating machinery, using both an RLC resonance circuit and fast Fourier transform analysis.