Development of YBCO HTS cable with low AC loss

M. Yagi
a,
*
, S. Mukoyama
a
, N. Amemiya
b
, S. Nagaya
c
, N. Kashima
c
, Y. Shiohara
d
a
Energy Transmission Research Department Ecology and Energy Laboratory, The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., 6, Yawata-Kaigandori, Ichihara, Chiba 290-8555, Japan
b
Yokohama National University, 79-5, Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan
c
Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., 20-1, Kitasekiyama, Ohdaka-cho, Midori-ku, Nagoya 459-8522, Japan
d
Superconductivity Research Laboratory, 1-10-13, Shinonome, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0062, Japan
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Available online 6 June 2008
PACS:
84.70.+p
84.71.Fk
Keywords:
High-T
c
superconducting (HTS) cable
HTS conductor
AC loss
Overcurrent
HTS joint
YBCO
a b s t r a c t
High temperature superconducting (HTS) cables using YBCO tapes are expected to be more economical
because AC losses will be much smaller than conventional cables. To reduce AC loss, 10 mm wide YBCO
tapes were divided into ve strips using a YAG laser. Using narrower strips and optimizing the space
between the strips were effective in reducing AC loss. A 1 m conductor was fabricated, and AC loss
was 0.048 W/m at 1 kA and 50 Hz.
Based on the successful AC loss reduction in the 1 m conductor, we will fabricate a 10 m HTS cable with a
three-layer HTS conductor, electrical insulation, and a one-layer HTS shield and cupper protection layer
for overcurrent. In addition, we have developed a prototype of the HTS cable joint that can withstand an
overcurrent condition of 31.5 kA for 2 s.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
A high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable using YBCO
tapes has been developed for the increasing demand of electricity
in the near future [1,2]. YBCO tapes have higher J
c
characteristics
and fewer costly components, such as silver, than BSCCO tapes.
Therefore, we can expect the YBCO HTS cable to demonstrate lower
AC loss and to be more economical than conventional cable and
BSCCO cable [3]. However, the manufacturing process for YBCO
tapes is more complicated, and development was delayed. Re-
cently, there has been great progress in the manufacture of YBCO
tapes, and an HTS cable using these tapes is in an advanced stage
of development.
In this paper, we fabricated a 1 m YBCO conductor, where Cu
tape was soldered to YBCO tapes for overcurrent protection, and
the YBCO tapes were divided by the laser to reduce their AC loss.
The AC loss in this conductor was measured and low AC loss was
conrmed. Twenty-meter YBCO cable and cable joints will be dem-
onstrated in January 2008. The layout of the demonstration, joint
design, and specications of the cable will be reported.
2. Development of conductor with low AC loss
2.1. Specication of 1 m YBCO conductor
The YBCO superconducting tapes were fabricated by multi-
stage CVD at Chubu electric power company [4]. The width of
the tape was 10 mm, and the thickness of each layer of Hastelloy,
IBAD-Gd
2
Zr
2
O
7
, PLD-CeO
2
, CVD-YBCO, and Ag were 100 lm,
1.0 lm, 0.4 lm, 0.7 lm, and 20 lm, respectively. The critical cur-
rent (I
c
) was about 110 A. A copper tape with a thickness of
0.1 mm and a width of 10 mm was soldered to the Ag layer of
the YBCO tapes for protection of overcurrent accidents. There
was no degradation of the I
c
during this procedure. The YBCO tapes
with copper were divided into ve strips by a YAG laser.
The specications for the 1 m YBCO conductor are listed inTable
1. In the table, the 1 m YBCO conductor had a 200 mm
2
stranded
copper former with a diameter of 18.0 mm and two HTS layers.
Each HTS layer had 30 strips with a width of 2 mm. Those strips
were wound spirally on the copper former, and the spaces between
each strip were very small to reduce AC loss. The AC loss due to the
magnetic eld component parallel to the wide face of YBCO tapes
(parallel magnetic eld component) is much smaller than that
due to the nite magnetic eld component perpendicular to the
wide face of YBCO tapes (perpendicular magnetic eld compo-
nent). Therefore, the reduction in the perpendicular magnetic eld
0921-4534/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.physc.2008.05.250
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 436 42 1716; fax: +81 436 42 9359.
E-mail address: m-yagi@ch.furukawa.co.jp (M. Yagi).
Physica C 468 (2008) 20372040
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component is a key to AC loss reduction. Fabricating the HTS con-
ductor using a large number of narrow strips and a decrease in the
space between strips approaches the structure of the HTS cylinder
which does not have the perpendicular magnetic eld [5].
To obtain narrow strips, original YBCO tapes having 10 mm
wide were divided by a YAG laser. But the I
c
of these strips was de-
creased because the YBCO area was lost during the laser process-
ing. The ve strips were obtained by the laser processing four
times. In this case, the I
c
degradation through the laser processing
from the original to the ve strips was about 10%.
2.2. Experimental setup
The 1 m YBCO conductor had 1130 A of I
c
at 77.3 K and did not
have the capacity of 1 kA rms. To have sufcient capacity at
1 kA rms, this conductor was installed in the cryostat shown in
Fig. 1. Liquid nitrogen in this cryostat was cooled by reducing the
pressure. The temperature was controlled by regulating the valve
between the cryostat and the vacuum pump. And, this cryostat
had the insulation break at the both of the outer and inner cryostat
pipe that prevented an induced current from occurring between
the current lead and cryostat pipes.
2.3. Measurement of I
c
and AC loss
Fig. 2 shows the VI characteristics of the 1 m conductor. The I
c
(and n-value) at each temperature, 77.3 K, 70.0 K, 67.5 K, and
66.0 K were 1130 A (11.4), 1875 A (11.3), 2177 A (10.3), and
2365 A (10.9), respectively. N-values of each temperature are the
almost same, and VI characteristics are in agreement when nor-
malized by I
c
as shown in the inset of Fig. 2. The changing rate of
I
c
in the YBCO conductor is greater than that of BSCCO because
the critical temperature of YBCO is 90 K, which is closer to the
LN
2
temperature than BSCCO (110 K).
Fig. 3 shows the measurement of AC loss. In this gure, the AC
loss of 1 kA and 50 Hz at each temperature, 70 K, 67.5 K, and 66.0 K
are 0.15 W/m (I
t
/I
c
, which is the peak current divided by I
c
, is 0.78),
0.067 W/m (I
t
/I
c
= 0.65) and 0.048 W/m (I
t
/I
c
= 0.60), respectively.
In Fig. 4, the AC loss normalized by I
c
is almost in agreement at
each temperature, and there is no dependence on the LN
2
temper-
ature. Therefore, we can simply regard the cooling HTS conductor
as the increasing I
c
of a YBCO conductor and YBCO tapes.
In Fig. 4, when I
t
/I
c
is over 0.6, the normalized AC loss becomes
larger than the Norris strip model [6]. It indicated that some YBCO
strips were degraded, but it was uncertain whether it was done by
the laser processing or non-uniformity of I
c
along the width of the
YBCO. During the laser processing, the concentration or deconcen-
tration of the laser energy occurs due to uctuations of the laser fo-
cus or of the process speed. To reduce AC loss, it is also important
to use YBCO strips that have the same I
c
, and the YBCO tapes need
to maintain the uniformity of I
c
along the width.
3. Design of HTS cable joint and overcurrent test
Fig. 5 shows the HTS cable joint, which has a compact design for
use in the conventional vault. The diameter of the HTS joint is the
same as that of the HTS conductor. The prototype joint was fabri-
cated using two YBCO HTS cables, which had a length of 1.5 m,
200 mm
2
Cu stranded former, and three YBCO strips, which were
3.33 mm in width and spirally wound, with an insulation layer
6.5 mm-thick. Each Cu former was cut and shaped into a single V
groove, which was cut at an oblique angle, connected, and then
welded. As shown in Fig. 6a, HTS1 with Cu tape with a length of
1.5 m and a width of 3.33 mm are butted up against HTS2 with
Cu. Using HTS3 with Cu, the Cu side of the HTS3 was placed on
the Cu side of the HTS1 and HTS2 and soldered. Next, electrical
insulation for the HTS conductor joint and cryostat pipes was
constructed.
The HTS joint resistance, which is dened as the slope in the VI
characteristics when the HTS conductor keeps superconductivity,
was 0.3 lX, shown in Fig. 6b where the generated voltage was
18 lV at 60 A. Although there is still plenty of room for improve-
ments, such as an optimal joint length and solder thickness and
work efciency, the joint resistance of 0.3 lX was an acceptable
level.
This joint was cooled by 73 K, and an overcurrent of 31.5 kA for
2 s was applied. According to the specications of electrical instru-
ments installed in the 66/77 kV line in Japan, they must endure an
overcurrent of 31.5 kA for 2 s. The generated voltage was set as a
voltage tap on the HTS1 and HTS2 and increased to
7.50 10
4
lV peak/cm; however, a rising trend was not observed
when an overcurrent of 31.5 kA for 2 s was applied. In addition,
the temperature rising which was measured by Pt thermometers
on the HTS conductor was 68 K and the recovery time required
about 50 min. The degradation of I
c
in the HTS was not observed
after the overcurrent.
Table 1
Specication of 1 m YBCO conductor
Former Cu stranded 200 mm
2
Length 1 m
YBCO tape IBAD-MOCVD ve strips from 10 mm-width original
(I
c
= 110 A) 0.1 mm-thick Cu tape soldered on YBCO
Tape width/strips/layer/
outer diameter
2 mm/60 strips/2 layer/u20.0 mm
Fig. 1. Experimental setup.
2038 M. Yagi et al. / Physica C 468 (2008) 20372040
4. Demonstration of 20 m YBCO HTS cable
Fig. 7a shows the schematic view of a 20 m YBCO HTS cable,
including two types of 10 m HTS cables and a joint. One 10 m
HTS cable using RABiTS-type YBCO will be made by Sumitomo
electric, and the joint and the other 10 m cable using IBAD-type
YBCO will be made by Furukawa electric. The specications for
the IBAD-type 10 mcable are listed inTable 2. The YBCO HTS cables
have 200 mm
2
Cu stranded former and a three-HTS-conductor
layer for a demand of high capacity current, such as more than
3 kA. In this demonstration, the capacity of the HTS conductor will
be 1 kA class because we will use 100 A/cm-width YBCO tapes. And
these cables have electrical insulation with a thickness of 6.5 mm
Fig. 2. VI characteristics of the 1 m YBCO conductor. The inset shows the VI
characteristics normalized by I
c
.
Fig. 3. Measurement of AC loss (50 Hz) in the 1 m HTS conductor.
Fig. 4. Normalized AC Loss in the 1 m HTS.
Fig. 5. Design of the HTS cable joint.
Fig. 6. (a) Schematic view of the HTS joint and (b) VI characteristics of the HTS
joint that was the jointing of three YBCO strips with a width of 3.33 mm.
Fig. 7. (a) Schematic view of 20 m YBCO HTS cable and (b) structure of YBCO HTS
cable.
M. Yagi et al. / Physica C 468 (2008) 20372040 2039
for 66/77 kV [7] and one-HTS shield layer and eight-protection
layer using Cu tape with a thickness of 0.1 mm, shown in Fig. 7b.
The 20 m HTS cable including the joint will be demonstrated in
January 2008.
5. Conclusion
A 1 m YBCO conductor was fabricated and cooled by reducing
the pressure of LN
2
to evaluate AC loss (50 Hz). This conductor
had I
c
of 2365 A and AC loss of 0.048 W/m at 1 kA rms. A prototype
of HTS cable joint was constructed and withstood an overcurrent
condition of 31.5 kA for 2 s. Two types of 10 m YBCO cable and a
joint will be made and tested in January 2008.
Acknowledgements
This study was carried out as Collaborative Research and Devel-
opment of Fundamental Technologies for Superconductive Appli-
cation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)
and was cosigned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization (NEDO). All YBCO tapes were supplied
by Chubu Electric Power Company, which developed and manufac-
tured them in the project. We wish to express our gratitude to all
parties concerned.
References
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Table 2
Specication of 10 m IBAD-type YBCO HTS cable
Former Cu stranded 200 mm
2
Length 10 m
YBCO tape IBAD-MOCVD ve strips from 10 mm-width
original (I
c
= 100 A) 0.1 mm-thick Cu tape
soldered on YBCO
HTS conductor tape width/
strips/layer/outer diameter
2 mm/82 strips/3 layer/u21.0 mm
Inner semi-conductor Carbon paper 2 layer
Electrical insulation Semi-synthetic paper 6.5 mm-thick
Outer semi-conductor Carbon paper 2 layer
HTS Shield 2 mm/50 strips/1 layer/u36.0 mm
Protection layer Cu tape (0.1 mm-thick) 8 layer non-woven cloth
2040 M. Yagi et al. / Physica C 468 (2008) 20372040