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Research
The research of EMS is application oriented and greatly benefits from its internationally recognized expertise and unique infrastructure on applied superconductivity and cryogenics. The main focus is on sustainable energy, with the ambition of developing technologies, materials and systems that play a key role in our future energy chains. We investigate the application of superconductivity in the power grid (e.g. superconducting cables for transport of electric power), as well as the application of cryogenic technologies and materials for liquid energy carriers such as liquid natural gas and hydrogen. The group has an excellent track record in international pioneering projects on sustainable energy (such as ITER on nuclear fusion), but also in non-energy related, but very challenging, projects at CERN and ESA.
Research
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Lattice strain and superconductor performance Impact of magnet field, temperature, axial and transverse cyclic load on the superconducting wire transport properties. |
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Multi-physics modeling of cabled ITER superconductors Testing model coils or short samples of large current – high magnet field composite conductors often leads to results which are difficult to understand. The challenging and complex interaction of all involved phenomena, e.g., lattice strain and damage, material diffusion processes, magnet field, current sharing ... read more |
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AC loss and stability of superconducting cables The cabled superconductors to be applied in ITER have to withstand enormous electromagnetic forces and fast ramping magnet fields. Important research on this subject is done at the EMS group for more than a decade. The effort led to discovery of the remarkable change in AC loss with cyclic loading, inevitable knowledge for fusion magnets. ... read more |
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Joint optimization for AC loss and stability of superconducting cables for fusion Joints are the connections between superconducting coil terminations and current feeders. The objective of this research is to analyse the electro-magnetic and thermal behaviour of joints in different plasma operating scenarios. Since specific design properties of the joints are to be analysed, the simulation tool is required to have a high level of detail. The model, called JackPot - an abbreviation of Jacket-Potential, is able to calculate the trajectories of all strands in a CICC, and it uses this as a basis to calculate all electrical properties of the cable and its interaction with the joint normal conducting components. ... read more |
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Iter superconducting strand qualification tests The world-wide procurement of Nb3Sn and NbTi for the ITER superconducting magnet systems will involve eight to ten strand suppliers from six Domestic Agencies (DAs) on three continents. To ensure accurate and consistent measurement of the physical and superconducting properties of the composite strand, a large strand test facility benchmarking effort was performed. ... read more |
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The miniaturization of Joule-Thomson coolers is investigated since 1995. This research focuses on the development and the characterization of single-stage and two-stage coolers and the utilization of these coolers for cooling optical detectors and low-noise amplifiers. ... read more |
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Sorption cooler for ESA missions A vibration-free sorption cooler is under development for the Darwin mission of the European Space Agency. In two stages, the cooler can establish a temperature of 4.5 K. Currently, the work focuses on the first stage operating with hydrogen. ... read more |
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Sorption cooler for European Extremely Large Telescope A vibration-free cooling system is under investigation for the European-Extremely Large Telescope that most probably will be realized in Chile. In this project, high efficient, high power sorption coolers will be designed and the cooling chain will be optimized. ... read more |
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Research to high energy physics takes place at the NikHef institute in Amsterdam. ... read more |
