Short introduction into the Superconductors Lab
for the exchange program between
TE/MSC-SCD and TE/MSC-TF
By
Gerard Willering
11-05-2010
+ About 3 technical students
+ About 5 doctoral students
+ 1 fellow
+ External
In total about 28
TE-MSC-SCD
Activities
Superconducting materials and applications
Mandate
Design, prototype and follow the
production of superconducting wires,
tapes and cables for magnets, and
other electrical devices
(bus bars, switches, current leads,
power transmission and energy
management systems,
instrumentation).
Experiments
Characterize, test and
analyze the
performance of the
materials developed
and procured.
Test stations
Operate, maintain and
develop test and
characterization capabilities
for superconducting wires,
tapes, cables.
Examples of current Research, Technologies and Competences in the section
HTS
LHC Current leads - BSSCO
FRESCA II magnet insert - YBCO
Superconducting LINK - MgB2
Nb3Sn
Wires
ITER
Cables
FRESCA II magnet
LHC magnet upgrade
Chemical composition
Stability
Cabling
Busbar interconnections
Heat transfer through insulation
Precision thermometry
Materials imaging with several
tomography methods
NbTi
Fast Cycling Magnets
LHC reception tests (past)
Cabling
Station FReSCa (Facility for the Reception of Superconducting Cables)
-Vertical double cryostat, height about 4 meter
- Outer cryostat holds the dipole magnet (about 7 tonnes), always kept at LHe temperature
- Inner cryostat (70 mm inner diameter) holds the sample.
Warm-up 15 hours, cool-down 5 hours.
Flow scheme practical work
Industry and
collaborations
Materials and cabling lab
Building 103
HTS lab
Building 288
Development and
preparation of HTS
cables and wires
Preparation of cables
Superconductors lab
Building 163
Characterization
and reception tests
Further collaboration
Knownledge exchange
Magnet production
Material development
Superconductors Lab (163)
Test stations
7 wire test stations
Specifications
- Up to 4 kA
- Up to 15 T background field
- Regulated temperature 1.8 and 4.3 K
- Many types of sample holders
Test capabilities
- Ic
- RRR
- Quench propagation
- Magnetization
- Strain dependence
- Heat flow experiments
- Special tests
FRESCA cable test station
Specifications
- 32 kA
- 10 T background dipole magnet
- 1.8 K to 4.3 K
- Many types of sample holders
- 2 meter long samples
Test capabilities
- Ic
- RRR
- Cable stability
- Quench propagation
- Strain dependence
- Heat flow experiments
- Special cable tests
- Interconnection tests
- Joint tests
Sample holder and sample specifications for
NbTi and Nb3Sn tests.
Typical pressure up to 100 MPa are applied with
screws.
Design of a new sample holder
with only thermal contraction to
apply the pressure > 200 MPa.
(necessary for Nb3Sn research)
Interesting current measurements by Michiel de Rapper on Nb3Sn
- Critical current and Training
• very little degradation vs.
extracted strand (>1% on
average)
LARP 983 @ 4.3 K
35
30
• unstable behavior at low field.
20
• long training (30 quenches)
15
Iq d direction
Iq c direction
Ic c direction
Ic d direction
Strand Ic
10
5
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Effective field (T)
10
11
12
13
14
Quench current (kA)
Current (kA)
25
20
15
10
5
Sample CERN
0
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Quench number (#)
9
Interconnection sample with shunts
Interconnection sample with instrumentation
New shunt and clamp
design