Research on DC overcurrent characteristics and life prediction of YBCO tapes

Abstract

The repeatability of superconducting DC limiters has not been introduced by other literature. Understanding the performance degradation characteristics of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes under the overcurrent is of great significance for popularizing the application of a resistive-type DC superconducting fault current limiter. In this paper, the threshold experiment and repeated DC overcurrent experiment of HTS tape were carried out. With the critical current decay of the tapes under repeated DC overcurrent recorded, the current threshold under the DC overcurrent was obtained. And the performance degradation characteristics of the tapes under different repeated overcurrents were analysed, the resistance characteristics of the samples during different currents were compared. The results show that the DC overcurrent threshold of the copper-encapsulated second-generation (2G) YBCO tapes samples of Suzhou Advanced Materials Research Institute is 2.3/4 ms/3700 A. Under the repeated overcurrent, the performance degradation of the samples is abrupt, and the critical value is between 2.3/4 ms/3500 A and 2.3/4 ms/3550 A. The overcurrent has a limited influence on the magnitude of the resistance and will not affect the change trend of the resistance. The resistance at the falling edge of the current was greater than that at the rising edge of the current. The simulation was carried out by using COMSOL Multiphysics, and the simulation results matched the experimental results. The life prediction model of the samples was established and it was found that there is a custom equation relationship between the reliability of superconducting tapes and the number of the overcurrent, and the performance decline of this kind of samples is catastrophic.