The feasibility of new high-field low specific weight superconducting magnet designs using force-free fields is being explored analytically and numerically. This report attempts to assess the technical viability of force-free field concepts to produce high-field, low specific weight and large bore volume magnets, which could promote the use of high temperature superconductors. Several force-free/force-reduced magnet configurations are first reviewed, then discussed and assessed. Force-free magnetic fields, fields for which the current flows parallel to the field, have well-known mathematical solutions extending upon infinite domains. These solutions, however, are no longer force-free everywhere for finite geometries. In this preliminary study, force-free solutions such as the Lundquist solutions truncated to a size where the internal field of the coil matches an externally cylindrical magnetic field (also called a Lundquist coil) are numerically modeled and explored. Significant force-reduction for such coils was calculated, which may have some importance for the design of lighter toroidal magnets used in thermonuclear fusion power generation, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), and mobile MHD power generation and propulsion.
展开▼
