An Open-Source 3D FE Quench Simulation Tool for No-Insulation HTS Pancake Coils

TL;DR

This paper introduces FiQuS/Pancake3D, an open-source 3D finite element simulation tool for modeling quench phenomena in no-insulation high-temperature superconducting pancake coils, enabling detailed magneto-thermal analysis.

Contribution

It presents a new module, Pancake3D, for FiQuS that efficiently performs 3D transient simulations of NI HTS coils using advanced FE techniques and homogenization methods.

Findings

Successful magneto-thermal simulation of a 40-turn double pancake coil.

Analysis of local critical current density degradation effects.

Provision of reproducible input files for the simulations.

Abstract

A new module, Pancake3D, of the open-source Finite Element Quench Simulator (FiQuS) has been developed in order to perform transient simulations of no-insulation (NI) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) pancake coils in 3-dimensions. FiQuS/Pancake3D can perform magnetodynamic or coupled magneto-thermal simulations. Thanks to the use of thin shell approximations, an $\vec{H}-\phi$ formulation, and anisotropic homogenization techniques, each turn can be resolved on the mesh level in an efficient and robust manner. FiQuS/Pancake3D relies on pre-formulated finite-element (FE) formulations and numerical approaches that are programmatically adjusted based on a text input file. In this paper, the functionalities and capabilities of FiQuS/Pancake3D are presented. The challenges of FE simulation of NI coils and how FiQuS/Pancake3D addresses them are explained. To highlight the functionalities, the results of a magneto-thermal analysis of a double pancake coil with 40 turns per pancake with local degradation of the critical current density are conducted and discussed. Furthermore, a parameter sweep of the size of this local degradation is presented. All the FiQuS input files for reproducing the simulations are provided.