INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND

MANAGEMENT

SEMINAR PRESENTATION
ON

SUPER CONDUCTORS
SESSION 2017-18

BY:-AJAY KUMAR SHAH

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING(2017-18)
SECTION –ME-D411(4tAR)
 CONTENT
• Superconductors
• Discovery
• Properties
• Important factors
• Types
• High Tc Superconductors
• Magnetic Levitation and its application
• Application of superconductor
 INTRODUCTION
• – What are superconductors?

• Superconductors are the material having almost zero resistivity

and behave as diamagnetic below the superconducting transiting
temperature
• Superconductivity is the flow of electric current without
resistance in certain metals, alloys, and ceramics at temperatures
near absolute zero, and in some cases at temperatures hundreds of
degrees above absolute zero = -273ºK.
 DISCOVERY
• Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911
by the Dutch physicist ,Heike Kammerlingh
Onnes.
 THE DISCOVERY
• Onnes , felt that a cold wire's resistance would
dissipate. This suggested that there would be a steady
decrease in electrical resistance, allowing for better
conduction of electricity.
• At some very low temperature point, scientists felt that
there would be a leveling off as the resistance reached
some ill-defined minimum value allowing the current
to flow with little or no resistance.
• Onnes passed a current through a very pure mercury
wire and measured its resistance as he steadily
lowered the temperature. Much to his surprise there
was no resistance at 4.2K
At 4.2K, the Electrical Resistance (opposition of
a material to the flow of electrical current
through it)Vanished, Meaning Extremely Good
Conduction of Electricity-Superconductivity
 GENERAL PROPERTIES OF SUPER
CONDUCTORS
• Electrical resistance: Virtually zero electrical resistance.
• Effect of impurities: When impurities are added to
superconducting elements, the superconductivity is not
loss but the Tc is lowered.
• Effects of pressures and stress: certain materials
exhibits superconductivity on increasing the pressure in
superconductors, the increase in stress results in
increase of the Tc value
• Magnetic field effect: If Strong magnetic field applied to
a superconductors below its T C , the superconductors
undergoes a transition from superconducting state to
normal state.
MEISSNER EFFECT
• The complete expulsion of all
magnetic field by a superconducting
material is called “Meissner effect”
• Normal state: T > Tc
• Superconducting state : T < Tc
• The Meissner effect is a distinct
characteristics of a superconducting
from a normal perfect conductor. In
addition, this effect is exhibited by
the superconducting materials only
when the applied field is less then
the critical field Hc.
 IMPORTANT FACTORS TO DEFINE
SUPERCONDUCTING STATE
• The superconducting state is defined by three
very important factors:
1. critical temperature (Tc)
2. critical field (Hc)
3. critical current density (Jc).
Each of these parameters is very dependant on
the other two properties present
 CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
• The temperature at which a
material electrical resistivity
drops to absolute zero is called
the Critical Temperature or
Transition Temperature.
• Below critical temperature,
material is said to be in
superconducting and above this
it is said to in normal state.
Below this temperature the
superconductors also exhibits a
variety of several astonishing
magnetic and electrical
properties.
 Electrical Resistivity Vs Temperature
Plot for Superconductors and Normal
Metals
• From the figure it can be
seen that the electrical
resistivity of normal metal
decreases steadily as the
temperature is decreased
and reaches a low value at 0K
called Residual Resistivity.
 TYPES OF SUPERCONDUCTORS
TYPE 1 TYPE 2
Soft superconductors are those which can Hard superconductors are those which cannot
tolerate impurities without affecting the tolerate impurities, i.e., the impurity affects
superconducting properties. the superconducting property

Also called SOFT SUPERCONDUCTORS. Also called HARD SUPERCONDUCTORS. Two

critical fields Hc1(lower) & Hc2(upper) for
these.

Only one critical field exists for these Two critical field exist for these
superconductors. superconductors.
Critical field value is very low. Critical field value is very high
Exhibits perfect and complete Meissner effect Don’t exhibit perfect and complete Meissner
effect
These materials have limited technical These materials have wider technology of very
applications because of very low field strength high field strength value
value

.e.g :-Pb,Hg,Zn,etc. e.g. Nb3Ge, Nb3Si

TYPES OF SUPERCONDUCTORS
TYPE 1 TYPE 2
 MAGNETIC LEVITATION
• Magnetic levitation, maglev, or
magnetic suspension is a method by
which an object is suspended with
no support other than magnetic
fields. Magnetic force is used to
counteract the effects of the
gravitational and any other
accelerations.
• The two primary issues involved in
magnetic levitation are lifting force:
providing an upward force sufficient
to counteract gravity, and stability:
insuring that the system does not
spontaneously slide or flip into a
configuration where the lift is
neutralized.
Picture below is the levitation of a magnet
above a cooled superconductor, the
Meissner Effect
 Application of Magnetic levitation
• Maglev trains:
• Based on two techniques:
1)Electromagnetic suspension
2)Electro-dynamic suspension
• In EMS,the electromagnets installed on the train bogies
attract the iron rails. The magnets wrap around the iron &
the attractive upward force is lift the train.
• In EDS levitation is achieved by creating a repulsive force
between the train and guide ways.
• The basic idea of this is to levitate it with magnetic fields so
that there is no physical contact between the trains and
guideways. Consequently the maglev train can travel at
high speed of 500 km/h.
Maglev Train
 APPLICATION OF SUPERCONDUCTORS
• Powerful superconducting electromagnets used in maglev
trains
• In Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) machines
• Magnetic confinement fusion reactors (e.g. tokomaks), and
the beam-steering and focusing magnets used in particle
accelerators.
• Superconducting generators has the benefit of small size and
low energy consumption than the conventional generators.
• Very fast and accurate computers can be constructed using
superconductors and the power consumption is also very low.
Superconductors can be used to transmit electrical power
over very long distances without any power or any voltage
drop
 REFERENCES
• Wikipedia
• Engineering Physics (G Vijayakumari)
• Google images
• YouTube
• Hyperphysics.edu
THANK YOU !!

ANY QUERY!!