• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.108-115
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• 2009

As a participant taking part in the ITER TF conductor R&D program, we developed two toroidal field conductors with variations of conduit thickness resulting in the different void fraction of the conductors. The estimated void fractions of the conductors are 31% and 33%. In this paper we present the details of the TF conductor development and performance test results of them carried out by the measurement of current sharing temperature under cyclic loading. Regarding the conductor development, the internal-Sn-processed $Nb_3Sn$ strand characteristics, strand cabling, twist pitch and characteristics of the conduit materials are presented. For the understanding of the conductor design and performance, the conductor test results are presented and the effect of the conductor design parameters such as void fraction and twist pitch is discussed based on the results.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.10-20
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• 2016

The Cable-In-Conduit-Conductor (CICC) for the ITER tokamak Central Solenoid (CS) has undergone design change since the first prototype conductor sample was tested in 2010. After tests showed that the performance of initial conductor samples degraded rapidly without stabilization, an alternate design with shorter sub-cable twist pitches was tested and discovered to satisfy performance requirements, namely that the minimum current sharing temperature ($T_{cs}$) remained above a given limit under DC bias. With consistent successful performance of ITER CS conductor CICC samples using the alternate design, an attempt is made here to revisit the internal electromagnetic properties of the CICC cable design to identify any correlation with conductor performance. Results of this study suggest that there may be a simple link between the $Nb_3Sn$ CICC internal self-field and its $T_{cs}$ performance. The study also suggests that an optimization process should exist that can further improve the performance of $Nb_3Sn$ based CICC.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.985-996
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• 2000

The issue of quench is related to safety operation of large-scale superconducting magnet system fabricated by cable-in-conduit conductor. A numerical method is presented to simulate the thermal hydraulic quench characteristics in the superconducting Tokamak magnet system, One-dimensional fluid dynamic equations for supercritical helium and the equation of heat conduction for the conduit are used to describe the thermal hydraulic characteristics in the cable-in-conduit conductor. The high heat transfer approximation between supercritical helium and superconducting strands is taken into account due to strong heating induced flow of supercritical helium. The fully implicit time integration of upwind scheme for finite volume method is utilized to discretize the equations on the staggered mesh. The scheme of a new adaptive mesh is proposed for the moving boundary problem and the time term is discretized by the-implicit scheme. It remarkably reduces the CPU time by local linearization of coefficient and the compressible storage of the large sparse matrix of discretized equations. The discretized equations are solved by the IMSL. The numerical implement is discussed in detail. The validation of this method is demonstrated by comparison of the numerical results with those of the SARUMAN and the QUENCHER and experimental measurements.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.41-45
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• 2007

This paper presents transport current non-uniformity in a joint for superconducting multistage cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) and relaxation in the CICC. The joint is considered to have a current loop linked to an external magnetic field so that it becomes an emf voltage source. It is numerically analyzed using an electrical transmission line model. The inductive current in a resistive joint is compared to that of a non-resistive joint when the ramping field is applied vertically to the joints. Regarding the parameter values of the model. a full scale $Nb_3Sn$ CICC and a strand-to-strand (STS) joint for the toroidal field magnet of the KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) device are referenced to. It is found that the resistive joint prevents the current from rising too much and enhances decaying the current when the ramping stops. The 'flattop' current is found to be proportional to the ramp rate of the field (dB/dt). The relaxation length, which is defined as the length within which the maximum induced current falls by 1/e. is found to saturate within 0.27m.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.31-39
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• 2017

European R&D on designing their version of a DEMO fusion tokamak has recently resulted in the testing of a prototype $Nb_3Sn$ Cable-in-Conduit Conductor (CICC) for the DEMO TF coil. The characteristics and reported results of low temperature performance tests with the prototype CICC sample are compared with those from CICC samples incorporating other recent $Nb_3Sn$ cable designs. The EU-DEMO TF CICC prototype shows performance characteristics similar to that of the ITER CS CICC with short twist pitch. This is a first for a CICC sample that does not have a circular cross section. Assessment of its internal magnetostatic self-field suggests that a reduction in the internal self-field due to the rectangular geometry of the EU-DEMO TF CICC prototype compared to one with a circular geometry may have contributed to the performance characteristics showing current sharing temperature ($T_{cs}$) initially increase then stabilize with repeated electromagnetic loading, similarly to ITER CS CICC results. However, constraints on the internal self-field are not a sufficient condition for this $T_{cs}$ characteristic to occur.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07a
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• pp.37-40
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• 1996

Cable-In-Conduit Conductor(CICC) is widely accepted as an advanced superconductor configuration for large scale applications such as tokamak fusion reactors, MAGLEV (MAGnetic LEVitation), and SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage). The stability of CICC cooled with supercritical helium can be very high if it is operated below a certain limiting current. This limiting current can be determined by Stekly type heat balance equation. The stability characteristic of CICC for AC operation is more complicated than that of DC because there are additional instability sources which are associated with local flux change. Ramp-rate limitation is a phenomenon discovered during US-DPC (United States-Demonstration Poloidal Coil) program, which showed apparent quench current degradation associated with high dB/dt. This paper describes recent experimental investigation results on the ramp-rate limitation and discusses current imbalance, induced current, current redistribution due to local quench of the strand in the cable.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.25-28
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• 2006

The magnet system of KSTAR(korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) is consisted of 16 TF (Toroidal Field) coils and 14 PF (Poroidal Field) coils. Internal cooling CICC(Cable in Conduit Conductor) type conductor is used for both of TF and PF coil systems. The conduit material for $Nb_3Sn$ cable is Incoloy 908 and 316LN stainless-steel was used as conduit material for NbTi cable. $Nb_3Sn$ CICC is used for all TF coils and PF1-5 coils while NbTi CICC is used for PF6 and 7 coils. $Nb_3Sn$ and NbTi strands were made for KSTAR superconducting strand. They are satisfied with KSTAR superconducotr requirements. The $Nb_3Sn$ strands supplied from three companies; MELCO (Mitsubishi Electric Co.), OAS (Outokumpu Advanced Superconductor) and KAT (Kiswire Advanced Technology) were used. A special CICC jacketing system is developed for the KSTAR CICC fabrication which uses the tube-mill process consisted of forming, welding, sizing and squaring procedures. The. procedures for cabling and jacketing of CICC for TF and PF coils and their results including the geometrical specification and characteristics of strands are described.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.895-900
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• 1997

A Quench in cable-in-conduit (CIC) conductors is often initiated by a disturbance such as strand motion that generates a highly localized normal zone in a strand or a few strands of the CIC conductors. The localized normal zone causes current and heat transfer between a disturbed strand and neighboring strands. Electrical and thermal contact characteristics between strands thus have an effect on the transient stability of the CIC conductors. In this paper the effect of contact characteristics between strands on the CIC conductor stability is presented based on the measured heat transfer characteristics of supercritical helium (SHe) for the local heating. The quench and recovery processes of the strands for the abrupt and highly localized disturbance are analyzed at the boundary between quench and recovery.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07a
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• pp.205-209
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• 1996

In Tokamak magnet for nuclear fusion, high current pulse type conductor is requested. Cable in Conduit type Conductor(CICC) is considered to be effective for this application because of not only high current but the high stability and mechanical strength. In this paper, the present status of conductor development for superconducting tokamak has been investigated.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.219-221
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• 2000