Sustainable Structural Simulation and XRD Analysis of High-Temperature Superconductors for Solar-Integrated SMES Systems

Abstract

The rapid global transition toward solar photovoltaic (PV) power introduces grid instabilities due to solar irradiance intermittency. Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) utilizing high-temperature superconductors such as YBa₂Cu₃O₇−δ (YBCO) offers rapid power compensation due to zero DC resistance and sub-cycle response times. However, macroscopic SMES coil performance is fundamentally constrained by microscopic material parameters. This study presents a multiscale computational framework linking crystallographic parameters derived from simulated X-ray diffraction (XRD) to macroscopic power system dynamics. By controlling oxygen stoichiometry (δ = 0.08), the orthorhombic superconducting phase transition was verified through the splitting of the (033) and (103) diffraction peaks. Applying the Scherrer formula yields an average crystallite size (D) of 53.98 nm, from which the magnetic-field-dependent critical current density (Jc(B,T)) is mathematically modeled using flux pinning kinetics, yielding Jc ≈ 3.2 × 10⁶ A/cm² under self-field at 77 K. These material constraints parameterize a 90 kJ SMES coil configured with a 2-filar parallel conductor tape layout (Ic = 256 A total, operated safely at Ismes = 200 A), integrated with a 100 kW PV system in MATLAB/Simulink via a two-quadrant DC-DC chopper. Under a simulated 70% solar drop transient, the SMES system reverses power flow within 2.4 ms, limiting the DC-link voltage deviation to 1.7% and achieving a calculated round-trip efficiency (RTE) of 96.4%, inclusive of power electronic switching losses and cryocooler penalties. While validated against theoretical models, the framework relies on simulated structural data without direct experimental XRD input, highlighting the need for future hardware-in-the-loop and experimental validation.