Development of an experiment to study the effects of transverse stress on the critical current of a niobium-tin superconducting cable

Superconducting magnets will play a central role for the success of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). ITER is a current driven plasma experiment that could set a milestone towards the demonstration of fusion as a source of energy in the future. Cable-in-Conduit is the typical geometry for the conductor employed in superconducting magnets for fusion application. The cable is composed of over 800 strands. Once energized, the magnets produce an enormous electromagnetic force defined by the product of the current and the magnetic field. The strands move under the effect of this force, and the force accumulates against one side of the conduit thereby pressing transversally against the strands. The experiment proposed here has the goal of assessing the functionality of the apparatus designed to study the effect of transverse load on a cable composed of 36 superconducting strands (with a 3x3x4 pattern) by mechanically simulating the ITER Lorentz stress condition. The apparatus was assembled at MIT and preliminary tests at 77 K and room temperature were made to improve the design prior to carrying out the actual experiments. These were done at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) located in Florida. Ideally, the transverse conditions simulating the ITER conditions should be created by Lorentz forces due to current and magnetic field. Unfortunately to create such a high level of stress, currents higher than the power supply capability at NHMFL (10 kA) would be required. This is the driving reason to have an apparatus simulating the same stress condition mechanically.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Chiesa, Luisa

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joseph V. Minervini.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41265

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/41265