| Abstract: | Alternating current (ac) superconducting machines such as superconducting generators, transformers, or resistive current limiters need large‐current‐capacity conductors. These conductors are generally fabricated as multistrand cables stacked with multifilamentary NbTi superconductors whose current capacity is a few tens of amperes. ac quench current degradation has often been observed in ac use of such multistrand cables. Several reasons for this degradation have been pointed out: nonuniformity of each strand current, mechanical disturbances, thermomagnetic instability, and ac losses. However, it has not as yet been overcome. Since the angle between the strand axis and the cable axis changes along the cable axis in multistrand cables, the strands are exposed to a spatially (axially) distributed magnetic field, which has longitudinal and transverse components changing periodically due to multiple cabling. This paper mainly discusses the thermomagnetic instability due to the distributed transverse magnetic field, which was compared with the self‐field instability and the longitudinal field instability experimentally and theoretically. It was confirmed that the ac quench current degradation due to the distributed transverse field could be induced by the following: nonlinear E–j characteristic, strong dependence of E–j characteristic on magnetic field in low field region, uniformity of the axial current profile inside the superconductor with the high resistive matrix, and the poor thermal diffusion of CuNi/NbTi composites. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 131(1): 45–55, 2000 |
