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Fault current limiters are playing an ever more important role in today's power systems and many of their different types have now reached maturity. Owing to the progress in superconducting technology, the superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) has attracted increasing attentions. To investigate the efficacy of SFCL devices from a system point of view, the fault current limiting impedance is of great importance. This study proposed an improved structure of flux‐lock type of SFCL and compares the current limiting impedance of different layouts. It focuses on the impacts of iron core shape on primary winding inductance. The analyses include simulations based on finite element method carried out in the simulation software ANAlysis SYStem (ANSYS). This study shows that an E–E‐shaped core with an air gap is better than a closed core when being used for an SFCL. It is also found that for an iron core SFCL with fixed size, its rated fault current limiting impedance can be adjusted by changing the cross‐sectional area of the iron core centre leg and the length of the air gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]