Longitudinal inhomogeneity of DC current transport properties in Gd-system HTS tapes – Statistical approach for system design

Abstract

In this paper, we studied the DC current transport properties of GdBCO-coated conductors, including the longitudinal distribution of critical current. Inhomogeneity of the local critical current was firstly measured by means of TapeStar™ at 77 K, and then characterized based on a statistical method. Current transport properties were also measured for different positions and/or distances of potential taps using a four-probe method. It was shown that the longitudinal inhomogeneity of the conductor was described by use of a simplified percolation depinning model that takes account of Gaussian distribution. We further distinguished the above-mentioned inhomogeneity between statistical distribution and random failure. Influence of the aforementioned statistically distributed current transport properties on the magnet performance was also elucidated for simple pancake coils. This information is important as it provides guidance for practical system design.