High temperature superconductor levitation bearings for space application

Ma, K.B.; Chen, Q.Y.; Postrekhin, E.V.; Ye, H.; Zhang, Y.; Chu, W. K.

doi:10.1016/s0921-4534(00)01300-9

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We extrapolate that sustenance power below 0.5 watt is attainable with this prototype with the elimination of air drag when we operate in vacuum. Improvement to decrease this by another order of magnitude was estimated to be possible, but then the power spent on cooling has to be included, and the total rises back to about 0.7 watts [1]. However, this is a significant saving from the power resource available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reaction wheel with HTS bearings for mini-satellite attitude control

Zhang

Postrekhin

Bui

et al. 2002

Supercond. Sci. Technol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have developed a small reaction wheel, designed to be lightweight, compact and energy efficient. The main innovation is the use of the HTS magnet's bearings that promise low friction so that high momentum storage can be achieved with high spin speed. The bearings consist of seeded growth superconducting discs arranged in rings located above and below the rotating levitated wheel containing ring-magnets embedded at the top and bottom. The reaction wheel is in the shape of a hollow stainless steel cylinder. A brushless dc motor is installed inside the hollow cylinder to provide the necessary torque to the reaction wheel. The maximum design spin speed is 15 000 RPM to store 3.5 J s−1 of angular momentum. Spin-down test of the reaction wheel was performed in air. We have also measured the input power required to sustain rotational speed of the reaction wheel in air. Results from both of these measurements, when extrapolated to full speed in vacuum, indicate that power consumption, even accounting for the needs of the cooling system, is significantly smaller than that for state of the art commercial reaction wheels using mechanical ball bearings.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reaction wheel with HTS bearings for mini-satellite attitude control

Zhang

Postrekhin

Bui

et al. 2002

Supercond. Sci. Technol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Trapped flux lines allow for the establishment of an interaction between the magnet and superconductor, and thus to magnetic levitation [15,18], as can be observed in many videos available on the Internet [19-21]. Practical applications include levitation trains and magnetic bearings [22][23][24][25], whose aim is taking advantage of the lack of friction between moving parts made from superconductors and magnets.…”

Section: Meissner Effect and Levitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration experiments for solid-state physics using a table-top mechanical Stirling refrigerator

Osorio¹,

Palacio-Morales²,

Rodrigo³

et al. 2012

Eur. J. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Liquid free cryogenic devices are acquiring importance in basic science and engineering. But they can also lead to improvements in teaching low temperature an solid state physics to graduate students and specialists. Most of the devices are relatively expensive, but small sized equipment is slowly becoming available. Here, we have designed several simple experiments which can be performed using a small Stirling refrigerator. We discuss the measurement of the critical current and temperature of a bulk YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ (YBCO) sample, the observation of the levitation of a magnet over a YBCO disk when cooled below the critical temperature and the observation of a phase transition using ac calorimetry. The equipment can be easily handled by students, and also used to teach the principles of liquid free cooling.

show abstract

“…High-temperature superconducting (HTS) levitation bearings present some important advantages for applications where high speeds are achieved or where frictionless technologies are required. Some examples of these applications are high-speed flywheels [1], energy storage for space applications [2], high-speed motors and generators [3], and high-speed textile applications [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Axial Stiffness Augmentation by Adding Superconductor Bulks or Limiting Permanent Magnet Rings to a Horizontal Axis Zero-Field Cooled High-Tc Radial Passive Superconducting Bearing

Arsénio Costa,

Fernandes,

Costa Branco

2024

Actuators

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper analyzes the viability of different solutions to passively augment the axial stiffness of a horizontal axis radial levitation passive magnetic bearing (PMB) with a previously studied topology. The zero-field cooling (ZFC) of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) bulks promotes higher magnetic impulsion and levitation forces and lower electromagnetic losses than those with field-cooling (FC) but, on the other hand, the guiding stability is much lower than those with FC. Because of stability reasons, FC was adopted in most superconducting maglev systems. The trend of this research group has been to develop a horizontal axis HTS ZFC radial levitation PMB presenting notable levitation forces with reduced electromagnetic losses, defined by a topology that creates guiding stability. Previous work has shown that optimizing the bearing geometry to maximize magnetic guidance forces might not be enough to guarantee the axial stiffness required for many applications. First, the extent to which guidance forces are augmented by increasing the number of HTS bulks in the stator is evaluated. Then, the axial stiffness augmentation by passively adding two limiting permanent magnet (PM) rings is evaluated. The results show that the axial stiffness is highly augmented by adding limiting PM rings with no significant additional investment. This change enables the use of the studied ZFC superconducting PMB in high-precision axial stability applications, such as precision gyroscopes, horizontal axis propellers, and turbines.

show abstract

High temperature superconductor levitation bearings for space application

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Reaction wheel with HTS bearings for mini-satellite attitude control

Reaction wheel with HTS bearings for mini-satellite attitude control

Demonstration experiments for solid-state physics using a table-top mechanical Stirling refrigerator

Axial Stiffness Augmentation by Adding Superconductor Bulks or Limiting Permanent Magnet Rings to a Horizontal Axis Zero-Field Cooled High-Tc Radial Passive Superconducting Bearing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About