Verifying cryogenic cooling of superconducting cables using optical fiber

Abstract

Superconducting power lines, field windings, motors, and generators offer significant potential reductions in size, weight, and power loss for high current and high magnetic field applications. To avoid damaging these superconductors, adequate cable cooling is required during high current loads. Luna's fiber optic distributed temperature sensing technology (based on Rayleigh backscatter) has recently demonstrated cryogen monitoring capabilities down to 15 K over 20 m sensor lengths, providing real time characterization of cryogen flow transients and temperature distributions within flexible cryostats used to cool superconducting cables.