Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Ag sheath alloys for Bi-2223 superconductor tape

We evaluated the effect of alloying element additions to Ag sheath on mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of Bi-2223. Additions of Au, Pd and Mg to Ag sheath increased hardness and strength, while reduced elongation and electrical and thermal conductivity. In addition, microstructural investigation showed that the grain size of Ag significantly decreased with increasing content of alloying elements. The improvements in strength and hardness are believed to be due to the presence of alloying elements that lead to strengthen materials by combined effects of solid-solution, dispersion hardening and grain size hardening. Thermal conductivity of Ag and Ag alloys was evaluated in the temperature range from 77 K to 300 K, and com-pared to calculated value obtained by Wiedermann-Franz law. It was observed that the thermal conductivity decreased with increasing the content of alloying elements. Specifically, the thermal conductivity of $Ag_{0.92}Pd_{0.06}Mg_{0.02}$ alloy was measured to be $48.2W/(m{\cdot}K)$ at 77 K, which is about 6 times lower than that of $Ag(302.6W/(m{\cdot}K))$.