Over-current characteristics of superconducting model cable using YBCO coated conductors

For the application to power transmission cables, a number of YBCO tapes would be assembled and wound in spiral on a Cu-former. YBCO tapes and the Cu-former are connected in parallel and they might be subjected to short-circuit fault currents 10-30 times the operating current. In this study, we constructed a 1 m long YBCO model cable. Over-current with a peak of 31.5 kArms and a duration of 2.0 s, which was established by JEC (Japanese Electrotechnical Committee), was applied to this cable in a liquid nitrogen bath. The redistribution of the transport current between YBCO tapes and the Cu-former were examined by using Hall sensors. The numerical simulations were carried out using a newly developed computer program based on the 3D finite element method (FEM) in order to clarify the over-current characteristics in the cable. From the comparison of the experimental and simulation results, the validity of the developed computer program was confirmed. Therefore, we performed the simulations of a 10 m long model cable when carrying a fault current of 31.5 kArms applied for a durations of 2.0 s, and also estimated the influence of the cross-section area of the Cu-former and the Cu shield layer on the thermal behavior of the model cable by using the developed computer program.