Metallographic autopsies of full-scale ITER prototype cable-in-conduit conductors after full testing in SULTAN: 1. The mechanical role of copper strands in a CICC

TLDR: In this article, a post-mortem metallographic analysis of two Nb3Sn-based superconductor-based CS CICC prototypes is presented, which exhibited some rate of irreversible performance degradation during cycling.

Abstract: Cables made with Nb3Sn-based superconductor strands will provide the 13 T maximum peak magnetic field of the ITER central solenoid (CS) coils and they must survive up to 60 000 electromagnetic cycles. Accordingly, prototype designs of CS cable-in-conduit-conductors (CICC) were electromagnetically tested over multiple magnetic field cycles and warm-up-cool-down scenarios in the SULTAN facility at CRPP. We report here a post-mortem metallographic analysis of two CS CICC prototypes which exhibited some rate of irreversible performance degradation during cycling. The standard ITER CS CICC cable design uses a combination of superconducting and Cu strands, and because the Lorentz force on the strand is proportional to the transport current in the strand, removing the copper strands (while increasing the Cu:SC ratio of the superconducting strands) was proposed as one way of reducing the strand load. In this study we compare the two alternative CICCs, with and without Cu strands, keeping in mind that the degradation after the SULTAN test was lower for the CICC without Cu strands. The post-mortem metallographic evaluation revealed that the overall strand transverse movement was 20% lower in the CICC without Cu strands and that the tensile filament fractures found were less, both indications of an overall reduction in high tensile strain regions. It was interesting to see that the Cu strands in the mixed cable design (with higher degradation) helped reduce the contact stresses on the high pressure side of the CICC, but in either case, the strain reduction mechanisms were not enough to suppress cyclic degradation. Advantages and disadvantages of each conductor design are discussed here aimed to understand the sources of the degradation.