Theoretical and Experimental Studies of SMES Configurations for Design Optimization

In the current energy scenario, due to the increment in power generation from renewable sources, the importance of electrical storage systems has increased significantly, and as a consequence, the study of the improvement of its efficiency and the design of new storage systems also increased. Superconducting material permits the design of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES). The main problem of SMEs is the low energy density they have, what make the optimization of design to be one of the keys for inclusion of this elements in the power grid and other specific applications as, for instance, flux pumps. As the only basic forms for SMES, and with the objective of its mathematical optimization, this work (i) evaluates the mathematical equations for a real solenoidal winding, and (ii) develops the equivalent equations for a toroidal winding, from the electromagnetic laws. Then, (iii) a practical structure formed by short solenoids connected in series along a circular axis (quasi-toroidal structure) is studied. Due to the large number of equations involved in this case, the finite-element method in used here. Finally (iv), in order to validate the results without building the complete solenoid (impossible at the time), one of the magnetic coupling between two solenoids in the quasi-toroidal winding was developed according with the theoretical method, and experimentally tested. The study was carried out by programming different dimensions in order to make conclusions for a further development of an optimization algorithm. These conclusions are presented. This work is the first stage for the optimized design of a SMES, and presents the complete equations of the real toroidal winding as the base of the outline dimensions of a practical quasi-toroidal SMES.