Effects of impregnating materials on thermal and electrical stabilities of the hts racetrack pancake coils without turn-to-turn insulation

A high temperature superconducting (HTS) coil without turn-to-turn insulation is proposed for the field coil of a wind turbine. In the case of the field coil, epoxy impregnation is generally necessary to protect the coil from mechanical disturbances by time-varying magnetic fields and rotational vibrations to provide high mechanical integrity. This study examined the thermal and electrical stabilities of non-insulated GdBCO racetrack pancake coils impregnated with CTD-521, Stycast 2850 FT, and paraffin through cool down, over-current, and repetitive cooling tests. Among the three epoxy impregnated coils, the Stycast 2850 FT-impregnated coil exhibited the best thermal and electrical stabilities during over-current testing. In repetitive cooling conditions, the CTD-521-impregnated coil exhibited less degradation of its superconducting property due to the well-matching of the thermal contraction between the GdBCO racetrack pancake coil and the epoxy.