MEM05: The 3rd International Workshop on Mechano-Electromagnetic Properties of Composite Superconductors (Kyoto, Japan, 17–20 July 2005)

Abstract

One of the important challenges facing the international scientific community at the beginning of the third millennium is how to manage the world's energy resources properly. Superconductivity will provide one of the strategies employed to avoid an energy crisis. Of course the ITER Fusion Tokomak that is to be built in France provides an exciting focus for the whole superconductivity community. In parallel, we can expect that other key technologies for superconductivity such as large capacity transmission cables, energy storage systems, and generators and motors will have a real impact in technologically advanced countries. There is broadly a consensus that the prototype stage for high-current high-field superconducting applications is largely completed, and the required performance has been demonstrated. However, before we move to full industrialization of large-scale superconducting technologies, feasibility studies suggest there are two types of problem that remain. The first is the development of high performance and low cost materials which are fully optimized in terms of critical current, low ac loss and high strength. The second is the establishment of optimal procedures for system design accompanying scale up. As the system design is dependent on material development, there is a critical need to study the key issues for developing high performance superconducting materials. Under the activities of the NEDO Grant Project (Applied Superconductivity), MEM05 was organized by Professor Osamura (Kyoto University), Professor Itoh (NIMS), Professor Hojo (Kyoto University) and Professor Matsumoto (Kyoto University) and held in Kyoto, Japan. The focus for the workshop was the elimination of grain boundary weak links, the creation of strong flux pinning sites, the optimal arrangement of filaments and barriers for reducing ac losses, and the design of high strength strain tolerant composite conductors.Five subsessions were held at MEM05. • Mechanical properties of superconductors including the influence of stress and strain on the critical current of practical conductors such as YBCO and ReBCO coated conductors, BiSCCO tapes, MgB2 wires and Nb3Sn filamentary conductors. • The intrinsic strain effects on the critical current density in Nb3Sn YBCO, BiSCCO and MgB2. • Recent advances in the critical current, mechanical properties and reduction in ac losses of HTS tapes and wires. • The compositional and microstructural dependence of E–J characteristics and its explanation based on flux pinning, grain boundary weak links and other mechanisms. • Standardized test methods: international cooperative research work to establish test methods for assessing the mechano-electromagnetic properties of superconductors based on the activities of IEC/TC90 and VAMAS/TWA-16. More than 70 researchers attended the MEM05 workshop, coming from more than ten countries. In total, more than 50 presentations were made at the workshop. In this special issue of Superconductor Science and Technology selected papers have been included that are concerned with the comprehensive scientific research subjects mentioned above. The aim of this issue is to provide a snapshot of some of the current state-of-the-art research, and to promote further international research into the mechano-electromagnetic properties of composite superconductors.The workshop was organized under the activities of the NEDO Grant Project (Applied Superconductivity, 2004EA004) and VAMAS/TWA-16. We wish to thank the following for their contribution to the success of the workshop: AFOSR/AOARD and IEC/TC90-JNC.