Over-current characteristics of YBCO superconducting cable

To achieve large current capacity and high mechanical flexibility, YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) superconducting cables consist of a number of YBCO coated conductors that are assembled and wound spirally on a Cu former. In practical applications, superconducting cables are vulnerable to short-circuit fault currents that are 10-30 times greater than the operating current. Therefore, in order to ensure the stability of YBCO superconducting cables in such a situation and to protect them from the fault currents, it is important to investigate the redistribution of the transport current and electromagnetic coupling between the conductor layer, shield layer, and Cu former. In this study, we carried out experiments on a 10-m-long YBCO model cable, which was manufactured by Furukawa Electric. An over-current with a peak of 31.8 kA_rms and a duration of 2.02 s was applied to the model cable. We performed numerical simulations using a novel computer program developed using the 3D finite element method to elucidate the electromagnetic and thermal behavior of the YBCO model cable in the presence of an over-current.