Performance of layer wound epoxy-impregnated coils made from a multifilamentary cable of exfoliated YBCO

Abstract

The performance and reliability of magnets made from second generation (2G), exfoliated, YBCO conductors are highly improved by use of narrow, stacked, multifilamentary cable instead of a single wide tape. This paper reports on tests of five mini-coils wound from 2.4 mm wide ExoCable™, which is comprised of eight, stacked, exfoliated, YBCO filaments. The filaments are coupled electrically through a re-flow process, which results in enhanced electrical connectivity between the adjacent layers. The coils were tested at 77 K (up to 500 A) in liquid nitrogen and at 22 K (up to 700 A) in a conduction-cooled mode. The cable carries 500 A critical current at 77 K. A six-layer coil wound from 10.5 m of the cable, the largest coil created in the study, demonstrates a critical current of 280 A at 77 K at 0.4 T magnetic field on the winding. The coils were fully impregnated with Stycast 1266 and Henkel W19 low-viscosity epoxies. Repeated thermal cycling, to 77 and 22 K, does not degrade the coil’s performance. The cable AC loss and the coil winding magnetization are compared with the traditional 2G wide tape pancake geometry at 77 K. We observe a five times reduction of the winding magnetization when the 12 mm tape is replaced by a 2.4 mm cable, which is explained by the smaller magnetic moment of the cable winding. The field hysteresis profiles recorded at 22 and 77 K are presented to demonstrate the effect of the operation temperature on the winding magnetization. A finite element analysis of the winding magnetization shows a good agreement between the experimentally measured trapped field value, and the critical state model prediction. Finally, we discuss the stability of an ExoCable™ coil in a conduction-cooled operation.