The superconducting motor is on the right
With their low weight, high power, low noise, and smaller bulk, motors based on superconductors can deliver performance of over two orders of magnitude over conventional motors. But superconducting motors need subzero temperatures to function. Recently, American Superconductor has finished factory testing of a 36.5-megawatt motor for evaluation for use by the US Navy in combat vessels.
American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, and its strategic partner, Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), announced today the successful completion of factory acceptance testing for the world’s first 36.5 megawatt (49,000 horsepower) high temperature superconductor (HTS) ship propulsion motor at Northrop Grumman’s facility at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center. This is the final milestone before the Navy takes possession of the motor.
The motor was designed, developed and manufactured under a contract from the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR) to demonstrate the efficacy of HTS primary-propulsion-motor technology for future Navy all-electric ships and submarines. The power and torque of this HTS motor is comparable to the requirements for the Navy’s new Zumwalt class of destroyers, known as DDG 1000. In comparison with the conventional copper motors being used on the first two DDG 1000 hulls, the HTS motor is less than one-half the size and weight, and is more efficient over a much wider range of ship speeds.
Even though what we call “high temperature” superconductors still require liquid-air temperatures, there is a big difference between the extremely cold liquid-hydrogen chill required in the past and the liquid-nitrogen temperatures they can operate at now. We use “high” liquid-air temperatures in quite a few laboratory and industrial processes, so the thought of a motor in a military vessel that constantly needs refrigeration is not as disturbing as it may have been in the past.
Liquid Nitrogen is so fun! My physician used it to “burn” (actually freeze) a plantar wart off one of my fingers years ago. He only did warts on one day of the week, when he received a new thermos bottle of Liquid N. He dipped a cotton swab on a long stick into the vat, then quickly pulled it out and pressed it to your flesh. After repeated exposures, the wart was frozen. Then, the blood vessels around it ruptured, and killed off the wart.
It was cool (groan) that when he pulled the swab from the thermos, a drop of N would often fall off and hit my pants leg. On impact, the drop instantly evaporated in a “poof”, but I could feel a little cold from it.
Anyway, that’s my pointless story for the day.
Superconductors are pretty cool. The continuous and accelerating business of Materials Science is one of my favorite branches of R&D. This is one of the few sciences that tends to produce only good, useful things.
It’s developed by American defense contractors for the American military. Which means it should be showing up in Chinese battleships by this time next year.
I bet the H4 Hummer will use one.
BTW, I’ve been getting a screen asking for a validation code every time I post a message here WTH is going on?
It has always amazed me that when I tell others that the advancements in Electrical generation have improved over 1000 percent, sence we installed the dams in the rivers, and that the production could be improved 1000 percent…That few believe me.
Upgrading our electrical grid would only require upgrading the system to current standards or Better. and we wouldnt be having all these power problems.
4, Yep. The TVA could become the Giga TVA. Wonder which oil company doesn’t want it done?
MPI has developed a version of [this] generator which produces a spinning magnetic field without using moving parts at all. Since nothing is spinning but magnetic field energy, which is not a solid object, the rotational speeds which determine the generator’s output become essentially unlimited.
http://tinyurl.com/33bofc
Enjoy!
Electrical power generation improved 1000%????
Assuming new installations got 100% efficiency (which you can’t), that would mean that Hoover Dam is running at 10% efficiency today.
Count me in among those whose don’t believe it.
Think about when Hover dam was made.
And as far as I know, they havent Improved or changed the windings in the generators. They havent Kept up with the Current tech in power generation..
And i do know, that you NEVEr run at 100% You aim for 40-60%.
But, do you know we have computer Power supplies that are Good upto 80% power draw now, and are fully stable. they COST ALOT. Even Car transformers and inverters have improved, ALOT in the last 30 years.
You must understand something tho. the POWEr company only Buys and SELLs power…they dont make more then 10% of the power in the USA. they buy it from the Civil engineers and the aluminum and coal plants, then sell it to Us.. They have no Want, to repair or upgrade anything. Even their own wires that run the nation, they REALLy dont want to fix or update.