Superconducting materials

Within the EMPP research department, a team is specialized in the study of superconducting materials and their application in electrical engineering. It is a group that conducts research on the electrical, magnetic and thermal behaviour of superconducting materials and the feasibility of their large-scale use in electrical energy devices. The modeling and characterization of superconductors is a starting point prior to the design of superconducting actuators. A platform for testing the electrical and magnetic properties of the materials at a temperature between 4 K and 300 K and subjected to a maximum field strength of 10 T has therefore been designed.

This platform has several objectives:

• To allow measurements of losses in superconducting materials.
• Submitting materials to intense magnetic fields under variable temperature.
• Magnetizing materials by magnetic field pulses.
• To characterize structurally for the purpose of quality control in manufacturing, adapting non-destructive testing techniques to cryogenic and ambient temperatures, for which we are developing an experimental platform.
• Integrate superconducting elements in a complex electrical system simulated using a 40 kW Power Hardware In the Loop (PHIL) platform and driven by an Opal-RT real-time simulator.