Transverse stress effect on the critical current of jelly-roll multifilamentary Nb3Al wires

• Published in: Applied physics letters 1990-07, Vol.57 (5), p.506-507
• Main Authors: Zeritis, Dimitris, Ando, Toshinari, Takahashi, Yoshikazu, Nishi, Masataka, Nakajima, Hideo, Shimamoto, Susumu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.104241

Experiments were conducted to determine the transverse stress sensitivity of the critical current (Ic) of jelly-roll multifilamentary Nb3Al wires at 8 and 12 T. For comparison, similar experiments were conducted on bronze-process (NbTi)3Sn wires. At 12 T and under a transverse compressive stress of 150 MPa−conditions expected in fusion magnets−the Ic degradation of the Nb3Al specimen was ∼20% vs ∼65% for the (NbTi)3Sn specimen. The intrinsic superiority of Nb3Al over (NbTi)3Sn with regard to transverse compressive stress is thus clear. There is optimism that Nb3Al will eventually become a useful superconductor for large-scale, high-field applications.