Heat transfer to liquid and supercritical helium in superconducting rotors

Cooling designs of superconducting generator rotors are quite important for maintaining a stable superconducting state of field windings, and it is essential to comprehend the heat transfer characteristics of helium in rotating fields. Experiments were carried out using a large-scale rotating cryostat with a cold rotor diameter of approximately 800 mm. The heat transfer characteristics of liquid and supercritical helium under conditions of gravitational and centrifugal acceleration fields (maximum: approx. 3000 g at the refrigerant outer side in the rotor) with heat-transfer surfaces horizontal upward facing and perpendicular to such fields, radial and axial channels, and dummy winding cooling surfaces were obtained