Mechanical properties of Gd123 superconducting bulks at 77 K

Abstract

Mechanical properties of melt-grown GdBa2Cu3Ox (Gd123) large single-domain superconducting bulks with 10 wt% of Ag2O and 0.5 wt% of Pt have been evaluated at 77 K through flexural tests, on specimens cut from the samples, in order to estimate the mechanical properties of the Gd123 material without metal substrates, buffer layers or stabilization layers. The densified bulk was 46 mm in diameter and 25 mm in thickness, with low void density, and the standard bulk was around the same size, with voids. The results show that the mechanical properties of the densified Gd123 bulk with low void density are better than those of the standard Gd123 bulk with voids. We also compared the mechanical properties of as-grown bulks with those of annealed bulks. The relations between the microstructure and the flexural strength or the fracture toughness of the densified Gd123 bulk have been shown.