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US 5,278,380 AGranted
Superconducting magnet system with inductive quench heaters
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorJerald F. Lowry
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A superconducting magnet coil is protected from local damage due to quenching by inductively driven heaters formed by heater strips embedded in the coil and connected in closed loops. A cold bypass diode shunting the coil winding commutates current out of the magnet when the voltage drop across the region of the coil which has gone normal exceeds the forward bias of the diode. This change in coil current induces sufficient current in the heater loops to cause the entire coil to go normal for uniform dissipation of stored energy throughout the magnet.
Claims10
A superconducting magnet system comprising;
- a superconducting magnet assembly having magnet coil means;
- and
- a cryostat in which said superconducting magnet assembly is contained and cooled to a superconducting temperature by a cryogenic fluid;
- heater means comprising elongated closed loop heater members extending along said magnet coil means and oriented such that a change in magnetic flux in said magnet coil means induces current in said heater members;
- and
- bypass diode means connected across said magnet coil means and commutating current out of said coil in response to a voltage drop across the magnet coil means resulting from a quench within the magnet coil to produce a change in magnetic flux in the magnet coil means of a magnitude to induce current in said heater members sufficient to heat a substantial portion of the magnet coil means to a temperature above said superconducting temperature.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.