Abstract
AC loss is an important issue in the design of high-T$\sub$c/ superconducting power cables which consist of a number of Bi-2223 tapes wound on a former. In the cables, the tapes have different critical currents intrinsically. And they are electrically connected to each other and current leads. These make loss measurements considerably complex, especially for short samples of laboratory size. So special cautions are required in the positioning of voltage leads for measuring the true loss voltage. In this work we have prepared a conductor composed of three Bi-2223 tapes with different critical currents. The critical current and AC loss characteristics in the conductor have experimentally investigated. The results show that for uniform current distributions the conductor's critical current is proportional to the critical current of the Bi-2223 tape to which a voltage lead is attached. However it depends on the current non-uniformity parameter in the conductor rather than the tape's critical currents for nonuniform current distributions. The loss tests indicate that the AC loss is dependent on arrangements of voltage leads but not on their contact positions. The measured losses in the conductor also agree well with the sum of the transport losses measured in each Bi-2223 tape.