Italian National Project on

Superconducting Magnets for MHD

(1989 - 1995)

Main Aims

·       Design and Construction of a superconducting prototype magnet to be used in a linear MHD test facility with thermal input of 20 – 30 MW.

·       Reference Design of a demonstrative-size MHD Superconducting Magnet (active length ~ 8 m).

·       Conceptual Design of a commercial-size MHD Superconducting Magnet (active length ~ 16 m).

Related Activities

·       Study of different configurations of Superconducting Magnets for disk generators.

·       Study of edge effects due to shape of the magnet and Study of the transient behavior of the dewar.

Spin-Off of the Superconducting MHD Dipole Project

·       Study of the possible configurations of the superconducting magnets for a Disk-shaped MHD power generator.

·       Evaluation of the electrodynamical forces and of the currents induced on the wall of the cryostat for the prototype magnet.

·       Study of the alternative configurations for the inner shields of the prototype magnet.

·       Evaluation of the currents induced on the wall of the cryostat for the prototype magnet during the magnet discharge.

·       Analysis of currents induced on the wall a cryostat of octagonal cross-section.

·       Study of the possible magnetic configuration for tests on superconducting cables with a field of 10 – 13 T.

·       Studies on the industrial spin-off of the prototype magnet:

Magnetic Separators,

Superconducting electromagnetic filters,

Energy Storage Systems,

AC losses analysis,

High Field generation (10 – 20 T).

Final Considerations on the

Superconducting MHD Dipole Project

·       It results to be the first MHD magnet realized in 1994 - 1995 with the CICC technology.

·       The original technique utilized to manufacture the cable scores a new record for what concerns the total length.

·       The new winding technology developed has shown to be applicable to the manufacturing of large-scale magnets.

·       The impregnation technology has been successfully scaled to very large magnets (each coil of the saddle magnet weights 7.5 tons).

·       It has been shown that the costs for the construction of a 300 MWth MHD Dipole can be reduced of 75% with respect to the precedent estimates referring to the old technology based upon bath cryostats, which was used to construct all the precedent Superconducting MHD Dipoles.