TEST-RESULTS FOR LABORATORY-SCALE INDUCTIVE HIGH-T(C) SUPERCONDUCTINGFAULT CURRENT LIMITERS

Several laboratory scale screened iron core superconducting fault curr ent limiters (<1 kVA nominal rating) have been built and tested in ord er to study their fault current limitation characteristics. In this ar ticle we present the experimental results for a static impedance test and for a dynamic short circuit test. The static test is used to defin e the device operating conditions and the dynamic short circuit test i s used to characterize the limiter's performance. With the superconduc ting limiter in the test circuit, short circuit fault currents are lim ited to a few times the nominal current. The device impedance shows an initial rapid response followed by a more gradual increase over the f irst few cycles of fault current. Using a simplified circuit model ana lysis the experimental results are used to deduce materials parameters such as the superconductor current density and resistivity. The devel opment prospects for high-T(c) superconducting fault current limiters are discussed.