Behaviour of bulk superconducting trapped field magnets subjected to magnetic fields with a transverse component

Bulk superconductors can be used as trapped field magnets with unprecedented performances. Such trapped field magnets find a variety of engineering applications, in particular for brushless rotating machines and levitation devices. Compared to conventional permanent magnets, however, the magnetic field generated by a superconducting trapped field magnet is much more sensitive to the presence of an external field that is not perfectly aligned with the superconductor magnetic moment, i.e. when the external field has a transverse component. A situation where the superconductor experiences a magnetic field with a transverse component is likely to happen several times during running operation of the device. As an example, in a “trapped flux” synchronous machine, any variation of the load of the shaft may lead to a slight misalignment of the magnetic moment of the superconductor (placed in the rotor) with respect to the rotating field (generated by the stator). In such a situation, the superconductor is subjected to a rotating field, and the situation is likely to be different from a situation where the superconductor is subjected to a pure transverse field. In the present work, we aim at examining different scenarios (i.e. transverse or rotating) where the trapped field magnet is subjected to a transverse component. These configurations are examined both experimentally and numerically. The numerical model is used to determine the distribution of currents in the cross-section of the superconductor. We examine the conditions where the rotating field leads to a partial remagnetization of the sample and is therefore less detrimental that the application of a pure transverse field. We also show that the magnetic moment of the sample may behave differently that the field at the surface of the superconductor. Finally, we investigate the behavior of structures where the superconductor is attached to a thin ferromagnetic disk, and show the beneficial effect of such hybrid structures compared to the superconductor alone.

Acknowledgements : The research was funded through the University of Liège (ULg) and an ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the French Community of Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels Federation), under reference ARC 11/16-03. We greatly acknowledge M. Morita, S. Nariki and H. Teshima
from Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Futtsu, Chiba.