Analysis of the Strain and Stress in the HTS Generator at Different Operating Conditions

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) machines have the virtues of higher power density and better stability, which makes it a good prospect in the applications of wind power generation and ship propulsion. When the high-temperature superconductor is used in the rotating machines, the behavior of the conductor would be affected by the complex magnetic field, Lorentz force, and the centrifugal force. In order to evaluate the performance of the HTS coil in the machine, a finite element method model of the machine to calculate the magnetic field coupled with stress field was built in this paper. At first, the distribution of the magnetic field in the machine was calculated, then the Lorentz force was calculated and transferred to the stress field to obtain the stress and strain in the HTS and other structural materials. In the calculation, three operating conditions were considered, including no-load, full-load, and three-phase short-circuit fault. The results show that the stress on the HTS coil and the structural component are all smaller than the critical stress, which proves that the design is reliable.