Energy and the Physical Sciences: Novel multi-seeded bulk superconductors for sustainable engineering applications

产生强大而稳定的磁场的能力是广泛的可持续工程应用的关键技术。几乎总是，更紧凑的场源和更高的磁场密度直接导致更有效和成本有效的设备。这方面的一个例子可以在小型高功率直流电动机的广泛应用中找到，自从20世纪80年代廉价的高能量密度NdFeB材料家族的开发以来，这种电动机已经激增。另一方面，绕线超导磁体可以提供产生大磁场的潜力，但是它们非常昂贵并且难以制造。一个更便宜、更简单、更可靠的选择是使用磁化的大块超导体。（RE）BCO（其中RE =稀土元素，例如Y、Nd、Sm、Gd等）特别是，大体积熔融加工的高温超导体（HTS）家族是广泛的世界范围开发研究的主题。特别是，大块HTS材料提供了相当大的潜力，可以改善现有包含永磁体的设备的性能，并开发新的、高场和可持续的储能应用。事实上，这些材料代表了物理科学与能源需求部门可持续应用发展之间的直接联系，这将是英国经济中短期增长的基础。将（RE）BCO大块超导材料纳入实际工程应用仍然存在一些重要的科学和技术挑战。这些包括提高工艺效率、样品性能、产量、降低原材料成本、回收利用、加工具有保形几何形状的较大样品、开发实用的磁化工艺以及开发针对特定应用的定制低温系统。该提案的主要目标是解决和克服这些挑战的关键方面，以获得对单个晶粒生长过程的基本理解。这将使具有保形几何形状的（RE）BCO材料的加工具有成本效益，这将是其在能源部门和医疗保健行业的一系列可持续工程设备中应用的基础。该项目的具体重点将放在一个有效的回收过程的发展，使一个新的二次散装样品源低到中等领域的应用，一种新的多晶种技术的发展，用于制造大样品的共形几何形状和一种新的制造工艺的发展的基础上，一个梯度的组合物，以生产具有均匀的超导性能的散装样品在整个散装微观结构。

The ability to generate strong and stable magnetic fields is a critical enabling technology for a broad range of sustainable engineering applications. Almost invariably, more compact field sources and higher magnetic field densities lead directly to more efficient and cost effective devices. One example of this can be found in the widespread applications of small, high power DC electric motors, which have proliferated since the development of the cheap high energy density family of NdFeB materials in the 1980s. Wire-wound superconducting magnets, on the other hand, may offer the potential to generate large magnetic fields, but they are extremely expensive and are difficult to manufacture. A cheaper, simpler and more robust option is the use of magnetised bulk superconductors. The (RE)BCO (where RE = rare earth element such as Y, Nd, Sm, Gd, etc.) family of bulk, melt processed high temperature superconductors (HTS), in particular, is the subject of extensive world-wide developmental research. Bulk HTS materials offer considerable potential to both improve the performance of existing devices that incorporate permanent magnets and to develop new, high field and sustainable energy storage applications, in particular. Indeed, these materials represent a direct link between the physical sciences and the development of sustainable applications in the energy needs sector that will be fundamental to growth of the UK economy in the short to medium term.A number of important scientific and technical challenges to the incorporation of (RE)BCO bulk superconducting materials into practical engineering applications remain. These include improving process efficiency, sample properties, yield, reducing the cost of raw materials, recycling, processing larger samples with conformal geometries, development of a practical magnetisation process and the development of bespoke cryogenic systems for specific applications.The main objective of this proposal is to address and overcome the critical aspects of these challenges to gain a fundamental understanding of the single grain growth process. This will enable the cost-effective processing of (RE)BCO materials with conformal geometries that will be fundamental to their application in a range of sustainable engineering devices within the energy sector and healthcare industry. Specific emphasis of the project will be placed on the development of an effective recycling process to enable a new secondary bulk sample source for low to medium field applications, the development of a novel multi-seeding technique for fabricating large samples of conformal geometry and the development of a novel fabrication process based on a graded composition to produce bulk samples with homogeneous superconducting properties throughout the bulk microstructure.