Gd-123 bulk field pole magnets cooled with condensed neon for axial-gap type synchronous motor

We have conducted to develop an axial-gap type synchronous propulsion motor with Gd-bulk HTS field pole magnets. It has been established on the fundamental technology upon the liquid nitrogen cooling. In the present study, we aimed an output improvement of the motor by the magnetic flux density enhancement of the bulk HTS, in a word, the trapped magnetic flux density on the HTS bulk. The output of the motor depends on the physics of the motor, the magnetic flux density, and the electric current density flowing through the armature. We have employed a condensed neon with a helium GM refrigerator. The bulk HTS placed on the rotor disk inside the motor frame was successfully cooled down with circulating condensed neon. The temperature at the bulk HTS surface reached 38 K. Upon magnetization, we developed controlled magnetic field density distribution coil (CMDC) composed of a couple of pulsed copper armature coil. In the magnetization procedure, with decreasing magnetization temperature, minute by minute, after Sander and Kamijyo that the step cooling magnetization method was used. In addition, the CMDC coil has enabled to control the applied flux distribution. Three parameters as the temperature, the applied magnetic field, and the effective applied flux density distribution were changed within eight times pulsed magnetizations in total. Up to 4th pulsed magnetization, we kept (1st step) high temperature, and subsequent pulsed magnetizations were done at low temperature. As a result, the highest maximum trapped magnetic flux density was reached 1.31 T, about 2.5 times compared to the value obtained upon cooling with liquid nitrogen. Consequently, the output of the motor has been enhanced to 25 kW from 10 kW taken in the previous operation. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.