Abstract-- This paper presents some results of a study to evaluate energy conversion potential of an innovative electrical generator, employing a YBCO superconductor thin film disk rotor. Creating a rate of change of flux in a magnetic field using the “flux repulsion” property of superconductors, an electrical generator is realized. Using ANSYS simulation and a simplified experimental set up, the feasibility of the design concept of proposed device is evaluated for different magnetic field strengths and at different rotating speeds of the superconductor disk. Index Terms— Electrical Generator, Efficiency of energy conversion, HTS, Flux repulsion. I. INTRODUCTION everal laboratories around the world have been carrying out Research and Development (R&D) efforts to evaluate application of superconductors (SC) based on their two important phenomena: the “property of zero resistance” and the property of “perfect diamagnetism (Meissner effect). Of the many applications of superconductivity [1]-[5] some of the important ones in energy storage, power transmission and power generation include Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage devices (SMES) [6], [7] magnetic bearings in flywheel energy storage devices [8], underground transmission cables [9] from 34.5 kVA to 1000 MVA or greater, rotor windings in motors [10]-[13], generators [14], [15] and as flux focusing elements [16]. Meissner motors were also found in the literature [17], [18]. But generators based on the diamagnetic properties of superconductors to create a rate of change of flux to generate a voltage have not been found. This probably is due to the fact that type II superconductors are not perfectly diamagnetic [19]. The work presented here describes a novel electrical generator that utilizes the same diamagnetism property of superconductors, but to create a rate of change of flux to generate voltage in a secondary coil. The paper concludes with a discussion on the overall efficiency of the Manuscript received November 29, 2007. This work was supported in part by the Andrew Abolafia Company, Albany NY. Anil Puppala is with K&H Industries Inc., New York. (e-mail: apuppala@eng.buffalo.edu ) Ahmed Hosny is a Doctoral Candidate at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. (e-mail: aahosny@eng.buffalo.edu ) Dr. Mohammed Safiuddin is a Professor at University at Buffalo’s Department of Electrical Engineering. (e-mail: safium@eng.buffalo.edu Andrew Abolafia is with Andrew Abolafia Company, Albany NY USA. (e- mail: inventorone@earthlink.net ). constructed generator. II. EXPERIMENT Experimental setup is shown in Figure 1. A circular plexi- glass holds a Petri dish that carries superconducting YBCO thin film disk and liquid nitrogen. It is rotated about an axis passing through its center using a small 12 V DC motor, used as a prime mover. To reduce the weight and hence the moment of inertia of the disk, another hole is drilled symmetrical to the position where the Petri dish is held. Three Strontium Ferrite magnets of different sizes are used in the experiment. A coil of 1000 turns is wound around a core to pick up the voltage induced in it. The secondary circuit has a resistive load of 20 ohms. Mechanical details and dimensions are given in Figure 2. and Table 1. Figure 3 gives the block diagram of the complete experimental setup. A Hall Effect sensor measures the flux density at the pole face of the core. The voltage and the current of the prime mover circuit and also the voltage across the 20 ohm load and the current in the secondary circuit are acquired instantaneously using National Instrument’s NI- 6221 data acquisition card and LabVIEW software. Measurements are taken for rotational speeds up to a maximum of 21 rpm. Liquid nitrogen is constantly poured manually as it gets evaporated. Evaluation of Performance of an Electrical Generator with a Superconductor Element as Rotor Anil K. Puppala, Student Member IEEE, Ahmed Hosny, Student Member IEEE, Dr. Mohammed Safiuddin, Fellow IEEE, Andrew Abolafia, Member IEEE. S Fig. 1. Experimental setup