Nikolay Bykovsky

Test of 60 kA coated conductor cable prototypes for fusion magnets

Coated conductors could be promising materials for the fabrication of the large magnet systems of future fusion devices. Two prototype conductors (flat cables in steel conduits), each about 2 m long, were manufactured using coated conductor tapes (4 mm wide) from Super Power and SuperOx, with a total tape length of 1.6 km. Each flat cable is assembled from 20 strands, each strand consisting of a stack of 16 tapes surrounded by two half circular copper profiles, twisted and soldered. The tapes were measured at 12 T and 4.2 K and the results of the measurements were used for the assessment of the conductor electromagnetic properties at low temperature and high field. The two conductors were assembled together in a sample that was tested in the European Dipole (EDIPO) facility. The current sharing temperatures of the two conductors were measured at background fields from 8 T up to 12 T and for currents from 30 kA up to 70 kA: the measured values are within a few percent of the values expected from the measurements on tapes (short samples). After electromagnetic cycling, T-cs at 12 T and 50 kA decreased from about 12 K to 11 K (about 10%), corresponding to less than 3% of I-c.

Development of HTS Conductors for Fusion Magnets

In view of the development of cables for next-generation fusion reactors, research activities are carried out on all HTS materials available from industrial production. Preliminary design of a react and wind cable using Bi-2212 wires is carried out, inspired by the Nb3Sn cable for European DEMO. The design and construction of a 60-kA prototype cable made of coated conductors have been carried out. The strands in the cable are composed of a stack of coated conductor tapes (4 mm wide) embedded in a copper profile of 6.3 mm in diameter. Tapes and copper profiles are soldered together in order to obtain a mechanically solid strand and to keep the inter tape resistance at a minimum, so that current can be easily redistributed among the tapes in a strand. The strands are fabricated in pieces 2 m long, but scaling up to industrial production should not present any major problem. A flat cable is manufactured by winding 20 strands around a central copper former; the cable will be inserted in a steel jacket for force flow cooling. The critical current of each strand was measured at liquid nitrogen in self-field just after the manufacturing process (twisted and straight) and after cabling: No reduction of the critical current was observed. Two pieces of cable, each 2 m long, are going to be prepared and assembled to form a sample that can be tested in the EDIPO facility.

Commissioning of HTS Adapter and Heat Exchanger for Testing of High-Current HTS Conductors

In the EDIPO test facility, superconducting cables with a current carrying capacity up to 100 kA can be tested in a background field of 12.5 T. A NbTi transformer, which is operated at ≈4.5 K, provides the sample current of up to 100 kA. The high-temperature superconductor (HTS) adapter, which is similar to an HTS current lead, connects the HTS sample under test and the NbTi transformer and limits the heat flux between them to less than 20 W at a warm end temperature of 50 K. Helium of 4.5 K and 10 bar supplied by the refrigerator is warmed up to temperatures up to 60 K, by means of heaters and a counterflow heat exchanger (HEX). The HEX ensures that the warm helium leaving the HTS sample can be returned as cold gas with less than 20 K to the refrigerator. The commissioning of the HTS adapter and the HEX has been performed together with the test of a 60-kA class HTS cable manufactured at CRPP. The results of the commissioning of the HEX and the HTS adapter are presented.

Performance evolution of 60 kA HTS cable prototypes in the EDIPO test facility

During the first test campaign of the 60 kA HTS cable prototypes in the EDIPO test facility, the feasibility of a novel HTS fusion cable concept proposed at the EPFL Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) was successfully demonstrated. While the measured DC performance of the prototypes at magnetic fields from 8 T to 12 T and for currents from 30 kA to 70 kA was close to the expected one, an initial electromagnetic cycling test (1000 cycles) revealed progressive degradation of the performance in both the SuperPower and SuperOx conductors. Aiming to understand the reasons for the degradation, additional cycling (1000 cycles) and warm up-cool down tests were performed during the second test campaign. I c performance degradation of the SuperOx conductor reached ~20% after about 2000 cycles, which was reason to continue with a visual inspection of the conductor and further tests at 77 K. AC tests were carried out at 0 and 2 T background fields without transport current and at 10 T/50 kA operating conditions. Results obtained in DC and AC tests of the second test campaign are presented and compared with appropriate data published recently. Concluding the first iteration of the HTS cable development program at SPC, a summary and recommendations for the next activity within the HTS fusion cable project are also reported.

Winding Pack Proposal for the TF and CS Coils of European DEMO

The design of the European DEMO, i.e., the future fusion tokamak planned after ITER, is being developed under the coordination of the EUROfusion Consortium. This paper reports the design optimization of the toroidal field (TF) winding pack and its corresponding react-and-wind conductor, and a new design study of the central solenoid (CS). The optimization of the TF coil is driven by the results of the mechanical analysis that revealed an unacceptable stress accumulation in some locations of the previous proposal of the TF winding pack. The design study of the CS coil is done with the aim of minimizing the outer radius, while maintaining the magnetic flux defined in the PROCESS system code. The results of the design study, namely the optimized CS coil radius, current density, hoop stress, and the field map, define the initial information that will be needed in future for designing the DEMO CS winding pack and conductor. Contrary to the former similar studies, no upper limit is set for the peak field of the CS, implicitly allowing the use of high-temperature superconductors wherever the current density of Nb3Sn at the operating field is too low.

Magnetization loss for stacks of ReBCO tapes

The AC loss measurements of the high temperature superconductor (HTS) cable prototype in the EDIPO test facility motivated detailed investigations of the loss contributions from the tape, strand and cable stages of the HTS fusion conductor design proposed at the Swiss Plasma Center. As an initial step of the task, magnetization tests of soldered stacks of HTS tapes were carried out at temperatures of 5 and 77 K and magnetic fields up to 12 T using the vibrating sample magnetometer technique. The influence on the magnetization loss of the number of tapes, width of the tape, fields orientation and tapes manufacturer is studied experimentally performing both the major and minor magnetization loops with different ramp rates of the applied magnetic field. In order to validate the test results, a numerical model is developed and presented in this work. From the numerical model we also deduced an analytical approach for the magnetization loss in the stacks of tapes with arbitrary number of tapes in the critical state model. Comparison between the measured and estimated magnetization loss of the cable prototypes is reported as well.