Case Study

School of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Biological Engineering, and Material Science and Engineering
Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila
Superconductivity: Maximization of Energy Efficiency

on a Circuit
In partial fulfillment of the requirements in

Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering
(MSE20/ B11)
Submitted by:
Ramos, Chester Jericho O.
Submitted to:
Prof. Nannete Santos
December 2, 2017
Introduction
1.1 Background
Technology has grown and developed drastically as the 20th century enters. Every
technology is electrically powered. From a small unit phone to a large unit appliances, they
are filled with electrical wires and formed with several circuits. This circuits needs to have a
medium in order to pass the electricity/power throughout its parts. Conductors are used as
the medium since in a conductor, electric current can flow freely. Metals such as copper
typify conductors, while most non-metallic solids are said to be good insulators, having
extremely high resistance to the flow of charge through them. "Conductor" implies that the
outer electrons of the atoms are loosely bound and free to move through the material. Most
atoms hold on to their electrons tightly and are insulators. In copper, the valence electrons
are essentially free and strongly repel each other. Any external influence which moves one
of them will cause a repulsion of other electrons which propagates, "domino fashion"
through the conductor.
However, the best conductors in the world, excluding superconductors, have some
resistance in it. Resistance is the opposition to the flow of electrical current, more
specifically, nonvarying current (i.e., direct current (DC)). Impedance is the opposition to
the flow of varying current (i.e., alternating current (AC)). These two are sometimes used
interchangeably by the novice, and for many applications, they have the same results. In
fact, they share a common unit: the ohm. Because ohms represent the amount of resistance a
wire or cable will have, it is generally desired to keep the number of ohms as low as
possible. The primary reason for this is efficiency. Since all conductors have resistance even
a small amount, there’s still a little amount of energy wasted. We need to minimize it more
or if possible, eradicate completely.
1.2 Common Conductors

Even though most people believe gold is the best conductor because of its common
use in high-end consumer products, it is actually silver (gold is used on these products
because it does not corrode easily and can be left untreated on a shelf for months or years).
Electricity can flow through nonmetals as well (e.g., wood, plastic, rubber and glass), but
resistance is much lower in metals such as silver and gold. Even though gold and silver have
low resistances, they are too expensive in most cases to be applied in any form other than
plating owing through conducting wires.
In the late 1700s, copper was found to be a more cost-effective option than silver. Its
low resistance, wide availability and relative low cost launched it to the top of the preferred
conductor charts. Copper has the highest electrical conductivity rating of all non-precious
metals: the electrical resistivity of copper = 16.78 nΩ•m at 20 °C.
Copper’s higher tensile strength (200–250 N/mm2 annealed) compared to aluminum
(100 N/mm2 for typical conductor alloys[16]) is another reason why copper is used
extensively in the building industry. Copper’s high strength resists stretching, neck-down,
creep, nicks and breaks, and thereby also prevents failures and service interruptions.
Problem Encountered
The primary problem on the usage of conductors in the circuit is the small resistance
encountered by the current flow which cause a little amount of power dissipation. In which,
this study aims to resolve the power loss caused by the resistance on circuit wires to improve
energy efficiency. The resistance in a conductive wire also causes the shorten of its life
because there is a little amount of power converted to heat and lost to the surrounding
environment. This study also aims to find a solution and develop this disadvantage of the
conductor wire.
Significance of the Study

The study may help to find ways on how to develop the rate of flow of current on
electrical wire and maximize the energy efficiency on circuits and minimize power loss by
decreasing the amount of resistivity on the electrical wire. Readers may have also gain
knowledge about the factors that affects the resistance dependency.
Factors that Affect Resistivity

4.1 Temperature-Resistivity Dependence
Figure 1.1 Resistivity-Temperature Dependence
There are a couple of simple things
that can be done to reduce the resistance of a
conductor. The resistivity of an object varies
on different temperatures. The graph figure
1.1 shows the relationship between the
temperature and resistivity of a material. As
shown in the graph, the resistivity is direct
square proportional to temperature.
Conductors have lower resistance at

lower temperatures. Keeping a conductor cool
will help keep the resistance low and reduces
the amount of power lost to conductor
heating. Installing a conductor in location with
cooling airflow will help make it more efficient because it’ll keep the resistance lower (it will
also help prevent premature aging of the insulation and jacket materials).
4.2 Length of the Wire
The total length of the wires will affect the amount of resistance. The longer the wire,
the more resistance that there will be. There is a direct relationship between the amount of
resistance encountered by charge and the length of wire it must traverse. After all, if
resistance occurs as the result of collisions between charge carriers and the atoms of the wire,
then there is likely to be more collisions in a longer wire. More collisions mean more
resistance.
4.3 Cross-Sectional Area
Lastly, the cross-sectional area of the wires will affect the amount of resistance.
Wider wires have a greater cross-sectional area. Water will flow through a wider pipe at a
higher rate than it will flow through a narrow pipe. This can be attributed to the lower
amount of resistance that is present in the wider pipe. In the same manner, the wider the wire,
the less resistance that there will be to the flow of electric charge. When all other variables
are the same, charge will flow at higher rates through wider wires with greater cross-
sectional areas than through thinner wires.
Proposed Solution
5.2 Super Conductor
As stated in the previous statement, temperature affects the resistivity of an object.
Making the temperature lower, lowers the resistance of the wire. We can make the
temperature to the lowest degree where in the lowest resistance to be attained which is zero.
This is where the state of superconductivity goes in.
A superconductor is a material that can conduct electricity or transport electrons from
one atom to another with no resistance. This means no heat, sound or any other form of
energy would be released from the material when it has reached "critical temperature" (Tc),
or the temperature at which the material becomes superconductive. Even the best standard
conductors — like the copper wires in phone lines or conventional computer chips — have
some resistance; overcoming it requires operational voltages much higher than those that can
induce current in a superconductor. Once electrons start moving through an ordinary
conductor, they still collide occasionally with its atoms, releasing energy as heat.
Superconductors are ordinary materials cooled to extremely low temperatures, which
damps the vibrations of their atoms, letting electrons zip past without collision. Berggren’s
lab focuses on superconducting circuits made from niobium nitride, which has the relatively
high operating temperature of 16 Kelvin, or minus 257 degrees Celsius. That’s achievable
with liquid helium, which, in a superconducting chip, would probably circulate through a
system of pipes inside an insulated housing, like Freon in a refrigerator.
A liquid-helium cooling system would of course increase the power consumption of a
superconducting chip. But given that the starting point is about 1 percent of the energy
required by a conventional chip, the savings could still be enormous.
Cheap superconducting circuits could also make it much more cost-effective to build
single-photon detectors, an essential component of any information system that exploits the
computational speedups promised by quantum computing.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Superconducting wire is wire made of superconductors. When cooled below its
transition temperature, it has zero electrical resistance. Most commonly, conventional
superconductors such as niobium-titanium are used, but high-temperature superconductors
such as YBCO are entering the market. Superconducting wire's advantages over copper or
aluminum include higher maximum current densities and zero power dissipation. Its
disadvantages include the cost of refrigeration of the wires to superconducting temperatures
(often requiring cryogens such as liquid helium or liquid nitrogen), the danger of the wire
quenching (a sudden loss of superconductivity), the inferior mechanical properties of some
superconductors, and the cost of wire materials and construction.
Conclusion
In order to maximize the energy efficiency of the electrical wires in a circuit, we
could make it shorter in length, increase in sectional area and decrease the temperature to the
maximum extent until it reaches the state of superconductivity where zero resistance is
attained. It also means that the wire and cable will run cooler and the power source can be
smaller for a given load. Because heat can cause catastrophic failure or shorten the life of a
wire or cable, it’s good to minimize the amount of heat generated by resistance in the wire. In
short in also enhance the life and quality of the wire. Although, the superconductor material
has high cost of refrigeration and maintenance of wire and sudden loss of conductivity might
be the current problem if the superconductors are used in circuit. However, this can be
resolved in further researches.
References
Larry Hardesty | MIT News Office. (2014, October 17). Superconducting circuits,
simplified. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from
http://news.mit.edu/2014/cheaper-superconducting-computer-chips-1017
Superconductivity. (2017, September 05). Retrieved November 30 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconductivity
Resistance. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2017, from

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circuits/Lesson-3/Resistance
Copper Wire Advantages & Disadvantages. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from
http://sciencing.com/copper-wire-advantages-disadvantages-8152803.html

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School of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Biological Engineering, and Material Science and Engineering

Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila

Superconductivity: Maximization of Energy Efficiency

In partial fulfillment of the requirements in

1.2 Common Conductors

Significance of the Study

Factors that Affect Resistivity

Conductors have lower resistance at

4.2 Length of the Wire

Superconductivity. (2017, September 05). Retrieved November 30 2017, from

Resistance. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2017, from

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