Description of capability
- Zach Hartwig and Richard Ibekwe propose an approach for producing REBCO superconducting material tape tacks with uniform current density by arranging pristine and defective HTS tapes in certain ways.
- This is mostly relevant for short stacks (< 10 HTS tape layers), where the current density is typically highly non-uniform, with most of the current going through a single layer. The idea is to either deliberately create defects in some layers in order to force current to move to the other layers, or to intentionally use pieces of tape that happen to be defective for the same purpose.
- Current uniformity gets you a more uniform magnetic field.
- Note: this is less relevant for VIPER cable, where dozens of tape layers means a better current distribution to begin with.
Key people
Technology Readiness Level (1-9)
2
Needs that this could potentially address
High-field magnets that are robust to quenches and radiation
Tech specs
Unknown
Estimated time & cost to commercialize
Unknown
Outstanding risks
- How much more uniform of a current density can we get using this method?
- What kinds of superconducting cables and magnets is this relevant for, anyway?
- What benefits does one get out of more uniform current density?