Operating Characteristics of Oval-Shaped Resistive Superconducting Fault Current Limiter

In order to limit fault current from an accident in power grid, many research groups have developed resistive superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) with a bifilar solenoid and a bifilar pancake types. Comparing with a bifilar solenoid type, a bifilar pancake type has the advantage of its volume, but it has problems such as recovery and insulation of SFCLs. To eliminate the drawback of these two types, in this paper, a new type of coil that is an oval-shaped SFCL, have proposed. This type consists of inner and outer layers which are connected in parallel. A small-scale sample coil was fabricated and experiments for both a short circuit test and recovery characteristic test were performed in liquid nitrogen. Experimental results were compared with two types of coils; the bifilar solenoid and bifilar pancake coil. Consequently, we confirmed the feasibility of an oval-shaped type.