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使能技术。几乎总是，更紧凑的场源和更高的磁场密度直接导致更高效和更具成本效益的设备。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20世纪80年代廉价的高能量密度钕铁硼材料家族发展以来，这种电动机已经激增。另一方面，线绕超导磁体可能提供产生大磁场的潜力，但它们极其昂贵且难以制造。一种更便宜、更简单、更可靠的选择是使用磁化体超导体。特别是（RE）BCO（其中RE =稀土元素，如Y， Nd, Sm， Gd等）本体，熔体加工高温超导体（HTS）家族是世界范围内广泛发展研究的主题。大块高温超导材料提供了相当大的潜力，既可以提高现有永磁体设备的性能，又可以开发新的、高场和可持续的储能应用，特别是。事实上，这些材料代表了物理科学与能源需求领域可持续应用的发展之间的直接联系，这将是短期到中期英国经济增长的基础。将（RE）BCO块状超导材料纳入实际工程应用仍面临许多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、处理具有保形几何形状的较大样品、开发实用磁化工艺以及为特定应用开发定制的低温系统。本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的应用的基础。该项目的特别重点将放在开发一种有效的回收工艺上，以便为低到中场应用提供新的二次散装样品来源，开发一种用于制造保形几何大样品的新型多种子技术，以及开发一种基于梯度成分的新型制造工艺，以生产具有均匀超导特性的散装样品。

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.