The Effect of Termination Resistances on the Quench and Mechanical Response in High-Temperature Superconducting Cables

The termination resistance can lead to the nonuniform distributions of current in the superconducting cable, which has an obvious effect on the quench characteristics. In order to study the quench in the infinitely long stacked-tape YBCO cable, a simplified two-dimensional (2D) model is established. By considering the termination resistances, the coupled heat conduction equation and the Maxwell’s equations are solved to calculate the evolution of current and temperature with time, where E-J constitutive law and Ohm’s law are used for the superconducting layer and other layers in the tape. Then, a 2D solid mechanical model is built to analyse the strain and stress during the quench. When the pulsed heat source is applied on the cable, it can be found that the termination resistance will affect the sequence of the quench of tapes in the cable. Meanwhile, the sequence and time of the quench are influenced by transport current and the locations of heat source. The distribution of the Von Mises stress is similar to the temperature, and the termination resistances have little effect on the mechanical behaviors. The strain rate has an inflection point when the temperature is more than the critical temperature.