Protection Heater Development for REBCO Coils

Abstract

Normal zone propagation rates are widely reported to be low in coils containing REBCO coated conductor, creating difficulties for quench protection of high field REBCO insert solenoids. A method of active quench protection using densely distributed heaters in high field REBCO coils has been proposed. When heaters are used to quench a sufficiently large fraction of the coil windings, the hot-spot temperature can be limited to acceptable values. The feasibility of protection of REBCO coils by distributed heaters depends on the amount of power to quench the required fraction of the coil volume, and the ability of the heaters to quench REBCO coils quickly. The high critical temperature of REBCO compared to low-temperature superconductor implies that the windings must be elevated significantly higher in temperature to initiate a normal zone. A number of measurements have been made of the performance of protection heaters on REBCO high field test coils. The results provide information on the response of coils to active protection heaters. Typically, there is a delay between the activation of the heater and the onset of quench in a coil. Measurements give the relation between the heater power and the quench delay time.