Establishment of CTE Measurement Procedure for PPLP at 77 K for HTS Power Cables using Double Extensometers

Abstract

The measurement of the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of polypropylene laminated paper (PPLP) as electric insulating material is important for its practical superconducting device application. The thermal strain induced to HTS tapes and its insulating material during cooling from room temperature might largely affect the critical current (<TEX>$I_c$</TEX>) of HTS tapes. In this study, the thermal contraction of PPLP material was measured during cooling from 300 K to 77 K using double extensometers. Initially, the CTE of a brass tape was measured and it was compared with a reference data. It was found that the measured thermal expansion data of the brass material approaches that of the reference one. Based on the results, it was then confirmed that the measurement technique could be applied to thin and flexible samples. Therefore, the same measurement procedure was applied to PPLP material using double extensometers. As a result, the linear CTE of the PPLP at 77 K has been measured to be <TEX>${\sim}15.3{\times}10^{-6}/K$</TEX>. Also, it was found that the thermal contraction characteristics of PPLP was dominated by polypropylene on the cross direction (higher thermal contraction) while it was dominated by Kraft paper on the machine direction (lower thermal contraction). Overall, this measurement procedure could be adopted for the determination of CTE of flexible materials such as PPLP.