Experimental results of a 30 m, 3-core HTSC cable

A high temperature superconducting (HTSC) cable is expected to transport large electric power with a compact size because of its high critical current density. We have been developing a 3-core 66 kV class HTSC cable, which is applied to the ∅ 150 mm duct, and is composed of a conductor and a shield wound with Ag-Mn sheathed Bi-2223 tapes, electrical insulation with polypropylene laminated paper impregnated with liquid nitrogen and thermal insulation with co-axial corrugated pipes. A 30 m, 3-core cable system has been constructed to verify the 3-core performance after its production, laying and cooling. The cable had good performance to mechanical stress in the factory process. The critical current of the cable was more than 2.4 kA at 77 K. The AC loss of the conductor part was 0.5 W/m/phase at 1 kA rms, which agreed well with the calculated value of the spiral pitch adjustment technique. A 130 kV rms AC was successfully applied without any change in tan δ and capacitance. As a next step, a 100 m HTSC cable has been designed and developed based on these experimental results.