Conceptual design of dump resistor for superconducting CS of SST-1

During the upgradation of SST-1, the resistive central solenoid (CS) coil has been planned to be replaced with Nb₃Sn based superconducting coil. The superconducting CS will store upto 3.5MJ of magnetic energy per operation cycle with operating current upto 14kA. In case of coil quench, the energy stored in the coils is to be extracted rapidly with a time constant of 1.5s. This will be achieved by inserting a 20m Ohm dump resistor in series with the superconducting CS which is normally shorted by circuit breakers. As a vital part of the superconducting CS quench protection system, a conceptual design of the 20m Ohm dump resistor has been proposed. In this paper, the required design aspects and a dimensional layout of the dump resistor for the new superconducting CS has been presented. Natural air circulation is proposed as cooling method for this dump resistor. The basic structure of the proposed dump resistor comprises of stainless steel grids connected in series in the shape of meander to minimize the stray inductance and increase the surface area for cooling. The entire dump resistor will be an array of such grids connected in series and parallel to meet electrical as well as thermal parameters. The maximum temperature of the proposed dump resistor is upto 350 °C during dump 3.5MJ energy. The proposed design permits indigenous fabrication of the dump resistor using commercially available welding techniques. (author)