Field-Serviceable Superconducting Cable Housing

Legacy copper-based power distribution and degaussing cables will not be able to meet the future requirements of Navy ships and submarines. While cable systems employing high temperature superconductors (HTS) have the potential to meet this need, further development work is required to improve the performance and increase the technology readiness level of key system components. The proposed work focuses on the cable housings used to encase the cryogenic HTS cables used in a shipboard HTS degaussing system. Currently, HTS cable housing assemblies are made in the factory at predetermined lengths and cannot be modified during installation. This can be problematic during shipyard installation because it is difficult to precisely determine the required length and cables often need to be rerouted relative to initial installation plans. Creare plans to develop a modularized HTS cable housing assembly that will provide the much needed flexibility to tailor the cable housing length and apply end connections at the time of installation. In Phase I, we will complete a proof-of-concept demonstration of our system. In Phase II, we will fabricate and test a full-scale prototype system