Study of a new axial-field superconducting inductor for a synchronous machine

In this work, a novel superconducting (SC) inductor topology for an axial flux synchronous machine is presented and tested. The proposed device combines HTS YBaCuO bulks and coils supplied with DC current to create a variable air gap flux density distribution. In fact, the two SC bulks modulate and redirect the flux lines produced by the coil thanks to their magnetic field shielding property. This results in a periodic space variation of the axial component of the flux density. A 3D electromagnetic modeling based on a finite element solution is developed to demonstrate the relevance of using the magnetic shielding properties of SC bulks. In order to verify the screening properties of the SC bulk, a prototype of the proposed inductor was constructed and tested in the laboratory.