HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTOR PASSIVE MAGNETIC BEARING

THIS PROPOSAL DEFINES A DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM ON THE ADVANTAGES OF HIGH-TC SUPERCONDUCTING CERAMICS (HTSC)'S IN APPLICATIONS CURRENTLY REQUIRING THE USE OF EXPENSIVE AND COMPLEX MAGNETIC BEARINGS. BECAUSE OF THEIR ABILITY TO SIMULTANEOUSLY EXPEL AND TRAP OR PIN MAGNETIC FLUX, HTSC'S PROVIDE THE POTENTIAL FOR MAGNETIC BEARINGS WHICH EXHIBIT STABILITY IN ALL DIRECTIONS WITHOUT THE EXTENSIVE, POWER CONSUMING AND COMPLEX CONTROL SYSTEM WHICH IS REQUIRED IN PRESENT DAY MAGNETIC BEARINGS. IN THEORY, PASSIVE HTSC MAGNETIC BEARINGS WILL BE SELF-STABILIZING. THE ADVANTAGES OF PASSIVE MAGNETIC BEARINGS MADE WITH HTSC'S, THEREFORE, WILL BE REDUCED STORED POWER OR POWER GENERATION REQUIREMENTS AND REDUCED WEIGHT AND VOLUME FOR ON-BOARD ROTATIONAL EQUIPMENT. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS WORK IS WORKING PROTOTYPE HTSC MAGNETIC BEARING CAPABLE OF OPERATING AT OR BELOW LIQUID NITROGEN TEMPERATURE. THIS BEARING WILL INCORPORATE BULK HTSC COMPONENTS WITH FLUX EXPULSION AND FLUX PINNING PROPERTIES OPTIMIZED FOR A PASSIVE WORKING HTSC BEARING, AN INSULATION AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEM SUITABLE FOR DEMONSTRATION AND EVALUATION OF OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS AND BEARING STABILITY OVER EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME, AND DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR PHASE II HTSC MAGNETIC BEARINGS.