Superconducting properties of experimental YBCO coils for FFAG accelerator magnets

Abstract

A project to develop fundamental technologies for accelerator magnets using high-Tc coated conductors is currently in progress. The primary applications of this project are fixed field alternating gradient (FFAG) accelerators for carbon cancer therapy systems and accelerator-driven subcritical reactors. Several types of superconducting coils for FFAG accelerators have been conceptually designed. These coils have complicated shapes, including a negative-bend part or a three-dimensional bent part. One of the aims of the project is to establish winding technologies for complicated coil shapes using coated conductors. To demonstrate winding technologies for YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) coils, small test coils having a negative-bend part or a three-dimensional bent part were designed and fabricated according to the present design of the FFAG magnet. The outside dimensions of the negative-bend test coil were 460 mm long and 190 mm wide, and the radius of curvature of the negative-bend part was 442 mm. The outside dimensions of the three-dimensional test coil were 380 mm long and 280 mm wide, and the radius of curvature of the mandrel of the three-dimensional coil was 700 mm. The test coils were wound using YBCO coated conductors with a length of about 100 m and were then impregnated with epoxy resin. The coils were placed in liquid nitrogen and excited to measure their V-I characteristics. From the V-I characteristics throughout a voltage range down to 10−9 V/cm, the V-I characteristics before and after impregnation were approximately the same, demonstrating that the superconducting properties were not degraded.