Critical current degradation in HTS wires due to cyclic mechanical strain

HTS wires, which may be used in many devices such as magnets and rotating machines, may be subjected to mechanical strains from electromagnetic, thermal and centripetal forces. In some applications these strains will be repeated several thousand times during the lifetime of the device. We have measured critical current degradation due to repeated strain cycles for both compressive and tensile strains. Results for BSCCO-2223 HTS conductor samples are presented for strain values up to 0.5% and cycle numbers up to and beyond 10(4).