International round robin test of the retained critical current after double bending at room temperature of Ag-sheathed Bi-2223 superconducting wires

Abstract

An international round robin test was carried out in order to establish a test method for retained critical current after double bending at room temperature of Ag-sheathed Bi-2223 superconducting wires. Tests for commercial Bi-2223 tape were conducted by six laboratories using the same guidelines. The standard uncertainties (SUs) of measurands were evaluated for these four quantities: IC0, IC/IC080, IC/IC060, IC/IC050, where, IC0 is initial critical current and IC /IC0XX is critical current after XX mm bending. Using an F test to determine where the most scatter was generated in the test results it was found that the greatest scatter in the normalized critical current measurements came from inter-laboratory scatter. In a type-B uncertainty evaluation, the major contribution was from the bending diameter and measuring temperature. The relative SU tended to increase as the bending diameter decreased. A specific mandrel diameter corresponding to a retained critical current of 95% could be determined with a relative SU of 1.3%. In order to reduce the overall scatter, the temperature difference between the critical current measurements before and after bending should be small.