An analysis of refrigeration system requirements for the superconducting power transmission cables currently under study at the three principal U.S. cable development centers indicates the need for cable system design considering the interrelated performance of the various cable system elements to successfully develop these systems for commercial operation in the 1990's. Hardware alternatives, compatible with the application timeframe, are evaluated to establish reliable refrigerator system design to a composite requirement typical of the range of refrigerator requirements presented by the cables currently under development. In addition, a methodology is presented and utilized to establish an estimate of hardware reliability and to evaluate redundancy requirements to a specific refrigerator system reliability allocation for a cable system used in previous cable development center studies. Reliability and performance of several compressor systems are evaluated.
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