抄録
Electro-magnetic thruster is one of the ship propulsion methods in which the thrust is resulted from the interaction between magnetic field generated by the fixed magnet on the ship and electric current sent to the seawater. Consequently, the thrust is generated without any rotational parts such as a propeller.
But this propulsion method requires high magnetic field density so that we have been trying to apply the superconducting coil to the electro-magnetic propulsion since 1973.
In 1976, the first electro-magnetic propulsion model ship in the world, which was equipped with a small superconducting coil, was built and fundamental experiments has been carried out in our laboratory. We confirmed from the experience that superconducting magnets are essential to the propulsion method.
In 1979, the second model ship of superconducting electro-magnetic thruster, ST-500, was built. The model ship is 3.6m in length, 700kg in weight and about 2 teslas in magnetic field. Our study on ST-500 has been evaluaed in the ship building world and invited to the international propeller conference held May, 1983. This article was prepared based on the paper presented in the conference.
