MULTIFILAMENT NB3SN MULTISTRAND CABLE PERFORMANCE USING SUPERCRITICAL HELIUM

We have measured the effect of change of supercritical helium flow on stability of a cabled multi-filamentary (MF) Nb3Sn conductor. We varied the flow of supercritical He through the cable and measured the ability of the cable to absorb single pulses of magnetic energy while the cable was carrying about 73% of its measured critical current in an applied 9.0T magnetic field. We have quantified the pulse energies in terms of the thermodynamic behavior of the helium fluid within the cable. Varying fluid mass flow rate G in the range 0 G ^ 36g/cm2s, we have observed stability of the MF Nb3Sn cable which is apparently as independent of G. as were previously investigated MF NbTi cables.1.2 Thus our present and previous findings in 3m length MF superconductor cables suggest the dominance by flow independent heat transfer mechanisms, rather than the flow generated turbulence previously considered dominant. © 1979 IEEE