A Study on the Thermal Characteristics of the Epoxy Insulator in the Stop Joint Box of HTS Power Cable

The HTS power cable is cooled by the circulation of liquid nitrogen. The cooling capacity of refrigerator increases with cable length. As the length of power cable increases, a joint box should be installed to reduce the cooling capacity and pressure drop for unit cooling system. The type of joint box can be divided into two groups. There are NJB(Normal Joint Box) and SJB(Stop Joint Box). Generally, SJB can separate each cooling system. In case of long distance DC cable, it is necessary to separate the cooling line in the regular distance of cooling system so SJB should be used. However, SJB, which has a difference from the insulation method of existing joint box, uses solid electrical insulation method. At the primary cooling time, thermal stress is generated by the temperature difference between the internal and external epoxy. So to prevent the damage stress analysis is required for the electrical insulation structure of SJB. In this paper, using the FEM analysis we study the cooling method and optimal shape of SJB to reduce the thermal stress result from temperature difference during the cooling time. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).