Hybrid design method for air-core solenoid with axial homogeneity

Abstract

In this paper, a hybrid method is proposed to design an air-core superconducting solenoid system for 6 T axial uniform magnetic field using Niobium Titanium (NbTi) superconducting wire. In order to minimize the volume of conductor, the hybrid optimization method including a linear programming and a nonlinear programming was adopted. The feasible space of solenoid is divided by several grids and the magnetic field at target point is approximated by the sum of magnetic field generated by an ideal current loop at the center of each grid. Using the linear programming, a global optimal current distribution in the feasible space can be indicated by non-zero current grids. Furthermore the clusters of the non-zero current grids also give the information of probable solenoids in the feasible space, such as the number, the shape, and so on. Applying these probable solenoids as the initial model, the final practical configuration of solenoids with integer layers can be obtained by the nonlinear programming. The design result illustrates the efficiency and the flexibility of the hybrid method. And this method can also be used for the magnet design which is required the high homogeneity within several ppm (parts per million).