Effect of transverse compression on superconducting properties of high-temperature superconducting wires

Abstract

We designed a transverse loading device that can apply a more uniform compressive force perpendicular to superconducting tape than previously designed equipment. The effective compressive length and width reached up to 100 and 20 mm, respectively. The critical current (IC) and/or transport AC losses of the superconducting tape during transverse compression could be measured using this equipment. We used YBa2Cu3O7−x-coated conductor (YBCO CC) specimens with copper stabilizing layers of different thickness to investigate the characteristics of the critical current and transport AC losses under transverse compression loading. For comparison, several Bi-2223/Ag samples were also tested. A critical stress was observed for the compression process (the same as that for axial tension), and beyond this stress, IC degraded irreversibly. For the transport AC losses behavior of the YBCO CC and Bi-2223/Ag specimens, below the critical stress value, the AC losses remained almost unchanged with the increase of the compressive stress at the same current; while above the critical stress value, at increasing compressive stress, the AC losses increased rapidly and the normalized AC losses for normalized current decreased.