The use of magnets made of high temperature superconductors (HTS) such as BSCCO and REBCO easily provide higher magnetic fields and higher operating temperatures, enabling dramatic improvements in superconducting magnet technology. The LTS magnet technology is very well summarized in text books written by M. N. Wilson (Superconducting magnets, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1983) and Y. Iwasa (Case studies in superconducting magnets, 2nd edition, Springer, 2009), covering such topics as stability, protection, ac loss and so forth. To the contrary, HTS conductors were commercialized only recently and therefore the magnet technology for HTS conductors remains undeveloped, especially so in the case of REBCO conductors. The technological problems for HTS coils thus far encountered are 1) an enormous effect of a screening current-induced magnetic field, 2) degradation in the coil performance due to excessive mechanical stresses applied along the longitudinal and transverse direction, and 3) the difficulty in protecting the magnet in the case of an abrupt thermal runaway. This paper reviews recent progress in overcoming these technological problems for HTS magnets. Both BSCCO and REBCO conductors have been used for HTS magnets in areas such as high field facilities, NMR, MRI, magnetic levitation trains and so forth. The effect of the screening current is the major problem for NMR, MRI, and accelerators, as it substantially distorts spatial field homogeneity and temporal field stability; on the other hand, degradation due to excessive stresses is substantial for high field magnets. Additionally, coil protection is a common and substantive problem among high current density HTS magnets in general. World-wide activities in developing BSCCO and REBCO magnets are overviewed in this paper.

Recent Developments in High-Temperature Superconducting Magnet Technology (Review)

Taking the relay of the large Hadron collider (LHC) at CERN, ITER has become the largest project in applied superconductivity. In addition to its technical complexity, ITER is also a management challenge as it relies on an unprecedented collaboration of seven partners, representing more than half of the world population, who provide 90% of the components as in-kind contributions. The ITER magnet system is one of the most sophisticated superconducting magnet systems ever designed, with an enormous stored energy of 51?GJ. It involves six of the ITER partners. The coils are wound from cable-in-conduit conductors (CICCs) made up of superconducting and copper strands assembled into a multistage cable, inserted into a conduit of butt-welded austenitic steel tubes. The conductors for the toroidal field (TF) and central solenoid (CS) coils require about 600?t of Nb3Sn strands while the poloidal field (PF) and correction coil (CC) and busbar conductors need around 275?t of Nb?Ti strands. The required amount of Nb3Sn strands far exceeds pre-existing industrial capacity and has called for a significant worldwide production scale up. The TF conductors are the first ITER components to be mass produced and are more than 50% complete. During its life time, the CS coil will have to sustain several tens of thousands of electromagnetic (EM) cycles to high current and field conditions, way beyond anything a large Nb3Sn coil has ever experienced. Following a comprehensive R&D program, a technical solution has been found for the CS conductor, which ensures stable performance versus EM and thermal cycling. Productions of PF, CC and busbar conductors are also underway. After an introduction to the ITER project and magnet system, we describe the ITER conductor procurements and the quality assurance/quality control programs that have been implemented to ensure production uniformity across numerous suppliers. Then, we provide examples of technical challenges that have been encountered and we present the status of ITER conductor production worldwide.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-2048/27/4/044001/pdf

Challenges and status of ITER conductor production

High-field superconducting solenoids have proven themselves to be of great value to scientific research in a number of fields, including chemistry, physics and biology. Present-day magnets take advantage of the high-field properties of Nb3Sn, but the high-field limits of this conductor are nearly reached and so a new conductor and magnet technology is necessary for superconducting magnets beyond 25 T. Twenty years after the initial discovery of superconductivity at high temperatures in complex oxides, a number of high temperature superconductor (HTS) based conductors are available in sufficient lengths to develop high-field superconducting magnets. In this paper, present day HTS conductor and magnet technologies are discussed. HTS conductors have demonstrated the ability to carry very large critical current densities at magnetic fields of 45 T, and two insert coil demonstrations have surpassed the 25 T barrier. There are, however, many challenges to the implementation of HTS conductors in high-field magnets, including coil manufacturing, electromechanical behavior and quench protection. These issues are discussed and a view to the future is provided.

High Field Superconducting Solenoids Via High Temperature Superconductors

AMSC has established a Second Generation (2G) High-Temperature Superconductor (HTS) wire manufacturing technology based on the Rolling Assisted Biaxially Textured Substrate and Metal Organic Deposition processes. AMSC's 2G wire (Amperium) has been used by a wide range of customers for development and testing of initial commercial HTS-based applications. Although the Amperium wire properties and quantities satisfy the requirements for these initial projects, improvements in critical current, field performance, and cost are beneficial for large-scale commercial and military applications. As Amperium wire manufacturing continues to ramp up, AMSC's R&D program has focused on increasing critical current, and the development of nonmagnetic substrates. The R&D process developed for a single-coat, 1.2 μm YBCO film has been transferred to production-scale equipment, resulting in the first Amperium wires with critical currents reaching 500 A/cm-w (77 K, self-field) in production length. A nonmagnetic substrate, which minimizes ferromagnetic substrate losses in ac cable applications, has been produced in R&D lengths and demonstrated in an Amperium cable wire.

Second Generation Wire Development at AMSC

This paper reports a study of two HTS racetrack coils wound with GdBCO coated conductors, one without turn-to-turn insulation and the other with Nomex insulation. The coils were characterized by charge-discharge, over-current, and sudden discharge tests. Thermal and electrical characteristics of the GdBCO racetrack coil without insulation outperformed the insulated one. The test results confirmed that although the coil without insulation has a slow charging/discharging time constant, the no-insulation winding technique may enable a compact and protection-free racetrack-typed coil with enhanced mechanical integrity as well as better thermal and electrical stabilities.

Investigation of HTS Racetrack Coil Without Turn-to-Turn Insulation for Superconducting Rotating Machines

Universal scaling law for quench development in HTSC devices

The ramp rate limitation phenomena were studied using local field sensors to observe the intrinsic processes within the cable. Sensitive miniature Hall sensors and small pick-up coils placed around cable-in-conduit superconductor were used to measure local magnetic fields and field derivatives associated with currents in the cable. Using this method, both fast jumps and slow changes in local magnetic fields at different conditions mere observed. First jumps occured during ramping background magnetic field and may indicate a fast current redistribution processes. Slow changing of local fields may be associated with current loops closed through the current lead joints. Such current loops may also indicate the nonuniformity of current distribution in the cable strands. The new method is a promising tool for future investigations of stability of multistrand cables. >

New method of current distribution studies for ramp rate stability of multistrand superconducting cables

For pt.I, see ibid., vol.28, pp.735-738 (1992). The evolution of quenches in multi-strand cables with high resistive matrix is analyzed. During the quench process, the growing normal resistance in certain strands will cause commutation of their current to other strands with less resistance (or still superconductive). This redistribution of current can lead to a quench of the whole cable. Furthermore, above a certain level of the initial current, an extremely fast quench process occurs with an apparent propagation velocity on the order of several kilometers per second. A model is presented that describes the above phenomena and special attention is given to the fast quench. It is noted that the fast quench could be a useful phenomenon for protection purposes or for the realization of superconducting switches with very short opening times and large dR/dt. >

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Quench development in superconducting cable having insulated strands with high resistive matrix. I. Experiment

In the framework of the Russian R&D Program for superconducting power devices, an experimental 30 m HTS power cable has been developed. Three 30 m phases with nominal current of ~2 kA and 20 kV operating voltage were delivered as the result of the project. Variations were used in basic HTS materials, cryostats and current leads for the cable design in this research project. All phases were made of 1G HTS Bi-based tape. The details of the design of the cable are discussed. Before the full length cable test a 5 m witness sample has been cut, heavily instrumented and tested. Results of the witness sample tests and analysis of fault current behavior of the cable are presented.

30 m HTS Power Cable Development and Witness Sample Test

The test facility developed in Russian Scientific R&D Cable Institute permits to perform extensive tests of heavily instrumented HTS cable models with length up to 5 m. Several HTS cables with different design have been developed and tested at this facility. The test programs included, besides usual critical current measurements, current distribution measurements among layers, joint resistance test, etc. The facility's equipment permits digital measurements of voltage and current with high accuracy and, therefore, digital ac loss analysis in model cables. In this paper we present the details of the test facility and results of tests and ac loss measurements in few 5 m model cables. ac losses in model cables made of 1 G and 2 G wires and other cable parameters are discussed and compared.

Vitaly S. Vysotsky

Papers

Universal scaling law for quench development in HTSC devices

New method of current distribution studies for ramp rate stability of multistrand superconducting cables

Quench development in superconducting cable having insulated strands with high resistive matrix. I. Experiment

30 m HTS Power Cable Development and Witness Sample Test

AC Loss and Other Researches with 5 m HTS Model Cables