Race-track coils for a 3 MW HTS ship motor

Highlights: • Sumitomo Electric manufactured the HTS field coils for a 3 MW HTS ship motor. • The motor was developed and successfully passed the loading test by Kawasaki Heavy. • We tested and obtained the basic data to evaluate the 20-year durability of coils. - Abstract: Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS), Sumitomo Electric has been developing silver-sheathed Bi2223 superconducting wire and products. Ship propulsion motors are one of the most promising applications of HTS. Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (SEI) has recently manufactured 24 large racetrack coils, using 70 km long DI-BSCCO wires, for use in a 3 MW HTS motor developed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI). The 3 MW HTS motor, using our newly developed racetrack coils, has successfully passed the loading test. It is particularly important that the HTS field coils used in ship propulsion motors can withstand the expansive forces repeatedly applied to them. As racetrack type coils have straight sections, the support mechanism they require to withstand expansive forces is very different from that of circular coils. Therefore, we ran tests and obtained the basic data to evaluate the 20-year durability of racetrack coils against the repeatedly applied expansive forces expected in domestic ship propulsion motors