Numerical Simulation of Magnetic Flux Penetration and AC Loss in HTSC Coated Conductor Tapes

The critical state model developed nearly 50 years ago by Bean (Phys. Rev. Lett. 8:250, 1962) allows finding analytical solutions for the magnetization of a superconducting slab in a parallel field and for a thin strip in perpendicular field, as well as the transport of AC current by a tape with elliptic or strip-like cross-section. Direct application of these models to the currently available HTSC coated conductor tapes is problematic because of several factors: Dependence of critical current on the magnitude of magnetic field and its orientation Non-uniformity of superconductor properties across the tape width or thickness Magnetism of the substrate Plausible solution is a numerical model for the process of magnetic flux penetration and associated time evolution of current density distribution. State-of-the-art commercial codes for finite element could cope with this problem. The numerical method based on the relation between the current density and the change of vector potential of magnetic field in two-dimensional geometry is presented and the results obtained for coated conductor tapes are reported. Influence of mesh parameters (density and shape of elements) as well as the thickness of boundary between opposite current densities on the calculated AC loss is analyzed. The recommendations for practical use of simulation method are formulated.