Supercondutores aplicados a engenharia

Abstract

Superconductivity is a centuries-old area of research in physics. But to understand superconductivity one must first take a step back and understand how conductors, insulators and semiconductors work. Superconductivity is defined as a material whose resistance tends to zero when it is below a critical temperature (TC), another notable characteristic is the expulsion of magnetic fields, known as the Meissner Effect. In this way, it is remarkable to see that we could have several engineering applications with such material, some of them are mentioned in this work such as Fault Current Limiters (FCL), transformers with superconducting windings, electrical machines such as large wind generators and high-speed trains known as MagLev, which work from the Meissner Effect. In this work, a review of such subjects is presented. Keywords: Superconductor, Wind Generator and Fault Current Limiter.