Magnetization of Coated Conductor Stacks Using Flux Pumping

© 2002-2011 IEEE. Stacked-coated conductor tapes have demonstrated superior properties over bulk superconductors, including the flexible stacking configuration, appealing mechanical properties, and the good cross field performance. This makes stacked high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes a promising alternative to HTS bulks in many applications despite of its cost, such as rotary motors and levitation. The conventional magnetization methods, such as pulse field magnetization and field cooling, require large magnetic field to be applied on an area to cover the whole HTS stacks, which seriously affects its applicability. In this paper, HTS flux pumping, a novel technique developed for HTS coil energization, is proposed to be used to magnetize stacked HTS tapes. HTS tapes used in this paper have slits in the middle between two tape ends, called partially slit tape (PST). The PSTs operate as flat HTS coils in persistent current mode once magnetized. The experimental results show flux pumping, with the traveling-wave based mechanical moving magnet design, is able to magnetize the stacked PSTs at a weak level compared to its potential.