Partitioning of transport AC loss in a superconducting tape into magnetic and resistive components

Abstract

Superconducting wire carrying transport alternating current with amplitude around its critical current exhibits two main loss mechanisms: besides the irreversible pinning of magnetic flux leading to magnetic losses that have prevailed at low currents, resistive loss appears due to nonzero resistivity in the overcritical regime. We tested the hypothesis that the total loss is an algebraic sum of both these loss components. Resistive losses were derived from the measured DC current-voltage curve, and magnetic losses established by a contactless method. We found that, in the case of a multifilamentary Bi-2223/Ag tape, the sum of two terms was in fair agreement with the total transport loss measured in the traditional way.