Transient stability of high current density superconducting wires

Abstract

The transient stability of cooled superconductors is described by a theoretical model and the criteria for achieving an order of magnitude improvement in transient stability are delineated. Transient stability measurements on single wire NbTi and Nb <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> Sn samples subjected to 100 μsec heat pulses are reported. Samples cooled with a porous metal surface heat exchanger show the order of magnitude improvement in stability predicted by the theoretical model.