Critical Current Measurement of REBCO Cables by Using a Superconducting Transformer

Development of REBCO cables that carry high electrical current in high magnetic field is crucial for future large-scale magnet applications. This experimental work presents the critical current measurements of two different REBCO cables by a test facility at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). The simple-stacked cable is made by the NHMFL by stacking 21 REBCO tapes without soldering. The Conductor on Round Core (CORC) cable provided by Advanced Conductor Technologies has 21 layers of REBCO tapes with 2 tapes/layer. The test facility consists of a 12 T split solenoid magnet with 15 cm bore providing transverse field to the samples, a superconducting transformer (SCT) as a current source providing up to 45 kA current. Special attention was paid to fabrication of solder joints between REBCO cables and the SCT output. The voltage-current traces were measured as a function of magnetic field at 4.2 K, from which the critical currents were determined. The details of this measurement are discussed.

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