Development of LMHS

ENERGY IN SOCIETY

Energy

Energy is a requirement for growth. As nature includes
mechanisms that actively increase entropy, energy is most often a required
input just maintain status quo. Our civilization has been
shaped by the development of methods to extract energy from increasingly convenient
and potent sources.

Currently, there is no more convenient method for the
transmission and usage of energy than electricity. With increasing regularity most
energy under human control will be converted into an electrical form for
widespread usage. Consequently, technology that increases the efficiency of
conversion, transmission, or application of energy will be beneficial to societal
goals. There is a technology that has been demonstrated in laboratories for
more than 100 years and excluding select use has yet to become widespread incorporated
into society. Discovered in 1911, superconductivity
holds the potential to introduce significant increases in efficiency and power
density in electrical systems.

Energy à Superconductivity

Superconductors
(SC) are materials that have the ability to conduct electricity without loss.
These electrical conducting materials do not obey Kirchhoff’s laws of [Voltage
= Current x Resistance]. The reason being an SC has no electrical resistance or
on a materials level there is no drift velocity effect from the material
lattice on the electrons to impede a moving current. A theoretical reason for
such perfect conductance comes from electrons or other fermions travel through
an SC by distorting the material lattice with what is known as a Cooper pair.
The only resistive elements in an SC in the SC state are splices between SCs or
connections to the SC. The net effect is still many orders of magnitude less resistance
and hence a negligible current drop for an SC over a classical conductor.

The primary difficulty
with SCs is that to date they only operate at very low, cryogenic,
temperatures. A further known relationship is the higher the power or energy
application, the lower the temperature operational requirement. On a
microscopic scale this is due to the weak Cooper pairing force where a minimal
amount of thermal agitation exceeding the low electron volts (eV) pairing energy will break the Cooper pair. On a
macroscopic scale this temperature dependence leads to an
SCs falling out of superconducting mode when they leave what is called the
corner point bounded by what is known as the SC’s critical temperature,
magnetic flux density, and current density as depicted in Figure 1‑1. These interrelated values represent the temperature,
magnetic, and current values that an SC must remain within else the SC phase of
the material is lost. Therefore the SC must operate below these critical values
at all times.

Figure 1‑1:
Superconducting Critical Value Corner Points

Further discussion
of the critical values requires the introduction of superconductor
classifications by material form and characteristic temperature. In the
application world there are 4 overlapping classifications for SCs as listed in Table 1.

 

Table 1: Superconducting Material Classifications

 

Of the three
critical values, only SC temperature is externally controlled. Conversely, the
magnetic field and current density are both controlled to some degree from the
initial SC material fabrication through to operation of each SC type. The
current density is controllable for a wire type SC but not a bulk type SC where
current vortices surrounding flux pinning centers are
an artifact of the material. The magnetic flux density is only controllable
when discussing an external magnetic field applied whereas the self magnetic
flux density is also an artifact of the current density within the SC and once
generated it can only be controlled through surrounding material and geometric
choices once leaving the SC.

Another method of
SC classification is according to base superconducting phenomena. SCs are
either Type I or Type II. For energy and power system applications, Type II SCs
are relevant.

When considering a
product, SCs bring a higher complexity and initial cost than non-SC
conventional solutions that have stood the test of time. So why make the SC
leap?

Engineers make a
living through the term, h, efficiency.
Otherwise, all engineers would be physicists. Engineers across all disciplines struggle
to attain increased power efficiency and in particular within a decreased mass
and volume, or power density.

Resulting from zero
electrical resistance, SCs provide potential for exceedingly high efficiencies
and power densities compared to any non-SC conventional option. This high efficiency and/or power density
prospect is the primary driver for any SC application. SCs allow the
highest amount of controlled macro scale power dense current transfer known to
humankind to date. The resistive power loss which turns electrical current into
heat is a great concern from small computers to large energy and power systems.
In the latter case, power transmission requires a high current density to
assist the transfer of electrical inertial energy and preferably low magnetic
fields to remove latencies in the form of reactance values but more importantly
to remove any additional losses from the motion of flux pinning centers and
added induced current loss effects. Certainly the electromagnetic effect
involves a combined electrical and magnetic field, but the Type II SC material
can be produced to increase or decrease the number and types of flux pinning
centers which in turn assists with holding more magnetic flux at a certain
location to increase the magnetic field or decrease the flux pinning centers
and thereby increasing the current density possible. In the energy systems case
of a motor or generator type machine, this machine type is only a dynamic
electromechanical transformer with a magnetic link between the mechanical and
electrical sides. Such a machine requires a high magnetic field linkage in the
air gap.

SCs offer potential for application revolutions in
energy systems, the transformation or storage of energy, and power systems, the
motion of energy. Focusing on energy systems, machines can become extremely power dense due to the increased magnetic flux density
capabilities an SC provides over conventional wire wound machines or even permanent
magnet based machines. In the machines industry alone there has only been
incremental advancement for over a century within the plant part of the system.
The advent of large scale SC machines would be the first revolution in this
industry since its birth in the late 1800s. Minor revolutions did occur while developing
our basic machine types in the late 1800s to early 1900s but otherwise this
industry has been mostly static from the plant side. In the late 1980s and
1990s another minor revolution occurred on the machine control side due to
ancillary developments stemming from semiconductor switching technologies for
higher voltage and current combined with computers for low level Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) controllability to medium level vector control.

This can all now
change with the first major machine plant advancement in a century. Thanks to
the cost and reliability of another ancillary technology in the past decade,
cryogenics becoming more robust and affordable even down to low cryogenic
temperatures, SCs are finally becoming an application reality. Due to the loss
of SC if there is a cryogen loss, then cryogenic equipment is still vital and
must advance, yet proper reliability through redundancy techniques of both the
cryogen circuit and supporting vacuum jacket can solve most of today’s application
issues.

SC materials have cleared the technical
performance hurdles when maintained at low temperatures some time back,
many costs have finally lowered to marketable levels, and many past ancillary
cryogenic concerns are solved. Among SC
form classifications presented in Table 1, technical performance of
bulk SCs is subject to some remaining challenges however wire SCs perform very
well in the lab and in small quantities have been wound and operated in single
custom device operations.

Led by the proven
performance of wire SCs, supported by recent improvements in required cryogenic
systems, and motivated by an expanding need for energy, the SC industry is
finally ready to embark upon a new technological revolution. Design and support
businesses must prepare for the technical application of SCs through
to commercial production.

 

Energy
à Superconductivity à Technical Reliability

Potential rewards offered by the incorporation of SCs into
products provide significant motivation to develop applications. The primary
reason SCs are not regularly specified by application engineers is that technical
reliability is absent from the initial device creation to follow on
support needs. Without a focus on SC technical reliability then the new age of
the SC wire industry, above liquid helium cryogenic levels, will remain in the
materials lab and the many awaiting SC device applications will not enter the
commercial world.

Bulk SCs, or trapped field magnets (TFMs), have the added
problem of solving the very difficult activation and deactivation technical
application hurdles before allowing the move from the materials lab into a
final energy systems device application. TFMs perform well in the lab but have
not entered a single application due to this added problem.

Although research is underway to create SC applications with
collections of discrete bulk shapes, the fundamental shape of the linear
conductor offers more versatility in energy conversion and transmission
applications. Wire SCs actually perform very well in the lab and in small
quantities have been wound and operated in single custom device operations, but
they still lack technical reliability. Technical reliability allows turning the
final device manufacturing process into a quality controlled and assured
process that can be trusted to repeatedly perform in the final application
device. When technical reliability combines with automation and versatility
then both the final system cost lowers and the variety of output types increases.
Without a technically reliable system no commercial application is achievable
due to a greatly increased failure rate and unpredictable failure events.

Technically reliable SCs galvanize the first machine revolution in over
a century. SC wire manufacturing needs span both low and high
temperatures SCs (LTS & HTS). The most prominent high performance SC linear
materials are MgB₂ and Nb₃Sn LTS wires and YBCO and BSCCO
HTS tapes where each are extremely delicate and require an appropriate system
for automation and technical reliability. In the LTS case one also desires
handling reacted wire to remove reaction process concerns such as compromised
insulation and extremely large thermal masses to support the high heat
treatment.

In the private sector, a great example of an SC opportunity is
an onshore or even more significant an offshore wind turbine where the volume
and weight allowable for any wind turbine is extremely limited by what can be suspended
up a tower. Conventional wire wound induction wind generators may be able to
achieve ~3.5MW ratings. Permanent magnet wind generators are limited to ~4.5MW
ratings. SC wind turbines readily achieve 10MW offshore, as many current global
initiatives require, and SC applications in Europe are even discussing 20MW SC
wind turbines as recent as 2010.

Power utilities are willing to pay a premium for higher
power offshore wind turbines since each part of a percent saved in power
efficiency translates to extreme financial earnings over time. Via distributing
the power generation across more wind turbines, all of the losses starting with
power transmission are much greater than a single unit. This
provides motivation to develop SC wind turbines but only if these wind turbines
are reliable. The downtime for any wind turbine is an extreme financial
burden. This extreme service cost is often so prohibitively expensive that wind
farm operators frequently take wind turbines offline instead of servicing only
a few at a time.

The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) industry, the only
industrial SC application at a currently estimated $5.5B global industry and
growing, relies upon the extremely low temperature requirements of SC wire at
liquid helium temperatures, 4.2K. Although technical reliability is not as
critical a concern with this particular SC wire type, albeit an automated
technically reliable solution will certainly assist this current SC choice, the
need for an MRI machine outweighed all other costs. Yet, even in the MRI industry,
the objective is to replace all extremely low temperature MRI units with a
higher temperature SC solution. The primary hold on this transition is again a
technically reliable final machine.

The ultimate competition of humankind challenges societies’
scientists and engineers to produce technically superior systems. High-energy
storage and high power output is often required in a very small package. This
is particularly true as the U.S. armed forces continue their aim towards fewer
personnel to perform a task through all electric systems. The entire U.S. armed
forces, from the USAF extremely power dense and high speed generators for the
all electric aircraft to the U.S. Navy all electric fleet to the U.S. Army modern
armored battalions and deployable power support, all desire and in some require
to enter into this SC revolution. The manufacturing of all such developing SC
devices must not only provide an initial SC high power dense application design
but also logistically control this specialized supply chain support need else
this SC revolution will be suppressed by cost and schedule.

U.S. Navy ships for the all electric fleet experience the
same technical reliability hesitation
as commercial industry. A machine operating the ship propulsion and/or entire
ship services power generation must be reliable. Losing power at sea can be
crippling to disastrous in calm to high sea state conditions for the vessel.
Yet the electric destroyer development for the U.S. Navy requires high power
dense machines from ship propulsion and services to the extreme power
requirements for the modern fleet high energy radars and weapon systems such as
the line of sight kinetic energy railguns, exoatmospheric railguns, and high
energy lasers. Losing propulsive, weapons systems, and U.S. Navy coined operational
fight through power while in combat can endanger not only the vessel but also
the mission which could be catastrophic on a scale much greater than the ship
itself. A specific U.S. Navy example is the Zumwalt

class DDG-1000 next generation destroyer propulsion system rated at 36.5MW,
6.6kV, and 120rpm capable competition where for this set power and speed rating
a significant difference across three considered motor topologies was mass and
volume. The propulsion power plant chosen and presently planned for deployment
is the Converteam based advanced induction motor
concept. The DRS proposed permanent magnet motor built and tested was around
80% of the induction machine’s mass and volume whereas the AMSC built and
tested proposed SC motor was 47% volume and ~30% mass of the induction machine
while providing a higher efficiency. Such a leap in technology is truly
revolutionary yet the AMSC team presumably lost with technical reliability of the SC wire being a primary concern.

Extreme high magnetic flux density windings include dipole,
quadrupole, and higher order multipole corrector
magnets for use in particle accelerators, magnetic energy storage rings, and
charged particle beam transport systems. One magnetically rigorous example, as
identified by global universities and national labs, is accelerator magnets. A
particle accelerator loss of SCs during a full power test run can destroy large
elements of the multibillion dollar accelerator system. Here not only
operational magnetic field uniformity and the use of winding tension techniques
to reduce the winding radial stress is crucial but the extremely high magnetic
stresses, many stemming from the turn to turn as well overall coil Lorentz
forces, require extremely precise and delicately handled coil builds else
imperfections lead to premature fatigue.

Each multibillion dollar application industry listed above is
awaiting SC technical reliability to reduce operating costs and increase
capabilities.

 

Energy à Superconductivity à Technical Reliabilityà MMP-LMHS

Conventional
winding machines have a long history and sufficed for the majority of the 20^th
century. Most winding machines offered today require continual manual
intervention down to a human interface foot pedal for detail oriented work.
Even more constraining, current winding machines rely upon pure mechanical
solutions for difficult winding problems. These winding machines are limited to
extremely slow manual throughput and no final system quality control (QC) or
assurance (QA) which often means a failed winding immediately or via premature
operational fatigue. Technical reliability is lost when the SC wire experiences
a wire handling stress. One actually hopes this stress point damages the wire
to a noticeable degree immediately. Else if the final coil is placed into
service then the combined severe mechanical, thermal, magnetic, and electrical
cyclic stresses which are unique to an SC coil may fatigue the final coil
prematurely and therefore fail the entire machine and hence operational system.

In summary, the
products of these tedious methods are prone to inconsistencies that have resulted
in low yields and many documented failures.

The Infinity
Physics, LLC (InfPhy) team is quite familiar with many commercial, government,
and military systems and their associated needs due to decades of past work
directly supporting their technical development. Focusing on the SC wire
industry due to their high requirements yet no proper solution to date, InfPhy
has involvement with industry players from LTS and HTS wire manufacturers to
the final component and device users. Poor performance output as accomplished
with winding superconductors using conventional winding machines will not be
tolerated in industry. A failed winding, which is unfortunately common per
today’s standards and practices, can readily cost on the low end from $10Ks and
on the high end many $10Ms to $100Ms when in test. This turns into an
incalculable figure for a failed military mission when in final operation. InfPhy
personnel identified this predicament in the 1990s. It is just recently being
recognized more globally by the SC wire manufacturers, SC application end
users, and U.S. government entities such as DoE which
has historically led this field.

Realizing the
significance of the problem, InfPhy developed a
solution that provides SC wire technical reliability.

To introduce
technical reliability into the development of SC applications, InfPhy developed
a Multipurpose Modular Platform – Linear Media Handling System (MMP-LMHS).
Capable of winding a wide range of linear media and not limited to only fragile
types, this innovation can serve many industries and is particularly targeted
for the SC industry. Addressing the most significant and demonstrated remaining
concern for the introduction of SCs in commercial applications, LMHS
facilitates an industrial revolution.
Robust automation for HTS and LTS based final application needs include MRI
magnets, wind turbine applications, fault current limiters, superconducting
magnetic energy storage rings (SMES), high magnetic energy coils such as
particle accelerator magnets, and of course multiple military applications. LMHS
also offers existing and future SC machine final product support needs, whether
developed through MMP-LMHS or not, for all maintenance, repairs, and spares
from technically reliable spare stocks to fast turnaround new builds. The
technology required for automation is a properly designed mechanical solution
in conjunction with modern closed loop control techniques. Industries such as
superconductivity and fiber optics components require large winds with
extremely sensitive wire care approaching that of filamentary windings but with
automation in mind. Classic winding manufacturers, viewing winding as a
separate entity and not as part of an automation process line, refuse to move
beyond pure mechanical techniques for delicate issues due to the complexities
and high risk involved. In many cases there is a belief that the delicate
linear handling required today cannot be automated in any respect. For
instance, the strain rate of reacted MgB₂ SC alone can be 0.1% for a
6” diameter bend which equates to a minimum bend diameter allowable of 22” with
no reverse bends when reacted flat. This is seen as too formidable of a
challenge to build a reliable product output nevertheless automate yet this is
the LMHS starting point.

In summary, although
there are other problems to be solved such as in the cryogenic cooling of
rotating and linear machinery, the solution for increasing the technical
reliability of forming fragile linear media has addressed a significant cause
for the lack of proliferation of applied superconductivity.

InfPhy responded to a need and over time developed a robust
solution. Not only will LMHS solve the high fidelity winding problem but LMHS
also focuses on expanding and automating the entire winding process for
extremely delicate to any linear media. As for the delicate wire case, a
combined exceptional mechanical design working in conjunction with a high
precision direct closed loop control solution is required for success. As many wound coils today are too
flawed for use, LMHS assists with generating quality winds in a controlled
fashion that allows not only a proper starting product, but the Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) will also greatly increase for
deployed SC winds. This capability then allows not only initial application
winds but a reliable supply chain of replacements including for the first time
the ability to design Line Replaceable Units (LRU) of QA supported SC windings
which allow SC swapping without taking the larger machine offline. Not only
does the unit cost greatly decrease from the increased application efficiency
and performance but the means of stocking SC based replacement parts is so
extreme a notion that it’s not been considered in the past due to this lack of
SC application technical reliability

stemming from the SC winding itself.

LMHS fulfills a minimum of the following top-level objective
requirements that have been identified through interactions with industrial
needs. Objectives below address primarily machine level technological needs and
include elements from machine to operator. The overall need is simple and
similar for both an R&D as well as a manufacturing perspective. A modern
wire handling solution must be capable of the following and all are designed
into the MMP-LMHS.

Performance: Safely
handle extremely fragile linear media

Technical
Reliability: Repeatable
handling of extremely fragile media safely

Record
Operational Values: Satisfy QC
& QA requirements to achieve higher MTBF

Automation: Perform
all tasks to a production level

Range: Provide
for large range of media, spool, and final former types

Versatility: Provide
for anticipated unknown variables and unique requests

Multiple
Processes: Media
handling requires many combined operations

Supply Chain: Supply
chain support including LRU capability

The innovation achieved by Infinity Physics is focused on
more than creating a wind with inherent technical reliability. LMHS prepares
for automation and versatility by designing with the entire system process flow
in mind. Therefore LMHS transcends the historic winding machine from a single,
isolated process entity into a system providing the foundation of the entire
fabrication and assembly line. To consistently control fragile media, such an
all encompassing effort provides the best path to achieve physical
implementation of linear media handling. LMHS is then used for the initial
prototype phase and design phase through to manufacturing while achieving
repeatable levels of QC and QA for the first time ever in this industry. Providing
the elements necessary for a production line, the necessary supply chain is
then finally able to develop for SC applications where QA based components can
logistically support a sortie of deployed SC applications.

To achieve automation of winding, Infinity Physics designed
sensitive closed loop feedback controls for high precision electric motors affecting
both the pay out of media from the spool and also the controlled deposit of
media on the former. Axial and off axis tension in the media is precisely
controlled and a report of all forces experienced by the media during the wind
is compiled. The result is a wind performed much faster than a manual process
and supported by quality assurance data.

The range of potential products will bring demands for
versatility of the winding procedure. For versatility, the industry standard of
dedicated welded steel and cast iron framework for winding machinery was replaced
with a framework of aluminum extrusions. Correctly sized, this framework allows
easy transformation and expansion of winding procedures including additional
operations before, after, and even amidst the media transport from the spool to
the former. Such versatility turns an isolated winding process into a complete
system solution for the final product coil involving multiple coil processes
far beyond winding alone. The aluminum extrusion platform also accommodates
customization with established collections of attachments from guards to
sensors.

This well-thought system approach intends to revolutionize
the winding industry to support a revolution in the conversion of electrical
energy.

The SC industry requires a technically reliable wire handling
solution for common to delicate linear media that completes the SC production
steps for both Research and Development (R&D) and Manufacturing as shown in
Figure 3‑2. Without the enabling LMHS technology all final
application users are extremely hesitant in moving forward with the latest
promising SC wire technologies with no confidence in the final product technical
reliability. MMP-LMHS solves
this national and truly global industrial need for this significant technology development in an automated and versatile
fashion and has patent protected the intellectual properly surrounding LMHS
innovations.

Figure 3‑2:
SC Device Production Steps: R&D & Manufacturing

InfPhy personnel actively work in solving application needs
for each SC classification area. The team has extensive experience with
research and projects in the field of superconductivity and identified the
industry need for technical reliability in the 1990s. Throughout a methodical
collection of talent for projects more broad in scope than in fragile linear
media handling or even superconductivity, and all the while following
developments in the superconductivity industry, this project was developed for
more than a decade and not introduced until August 2010 after the successful
design of a full scale prototype. Staffed with international members wielding
depth in the fields of physics, mechanical and electrical engineering,
controls, procurement, systems engineering and business process management, the
assembled team at Infinity Physics has taken the lead in the automation of
linear media handling for the superconductivity industry and, in doing so,
intends to lead the SC industry into commercial applications.