AC Loss and Contact Resistance In Copper-Stabilized Nb3Al Rutherford Cables with and without a Stainless Steel Core

TL;DR

This study measures AC loss and contact resistance in copper-stabilized Nb3Al Rutherford cables, comparing cored and uncored types, revealing how core insertion affects interstrand contact resistance and the implications for accelerator magnet applications.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed AC loss and contact resistance measurements for Nb3Al Rutherford cables with and without stainless steel cores, highlighting the impact of core insertion on electrical contact properties.

Findings

Cored cable FO-ICR was 5.27 Ω^-m, uncored less than 0.08 Ω^-m.

Resin impregnation affects interstrand contact resistance.

Core insertion increases contact resistance but remains below accelerator magnet requirements.

Abstract

Calorimetric measurements of AC loss and hence interstrand contact resistance (ICR), were measured on three samples of Rutherford cable wound with Cu-stabilized jelly-roll type unplated Nb3Al strand. One of the cable types was furnished with a thin core of AISI 316L stainless steel and the other two were both uncored but insulated in different ways. The cables were subjected to a room-temperature-applied uniaxial pressure of 12 MPa that was maintained during the reaction heat treatment (RHT), then vacuum impregnated with CTD 101 epoxy, and repressurized to 100 MPa during AC-loss measurement. The measurements were performed at 4.2 K in a sinusoidal field of amplitude 400 mT at frequencies of 1 to 90 mHz (no DC-bias field) that was applied both perpendicular and parallel to the face of the cable (the face-on, FO, and edge-on, EO, directions, respectively). For the cored cable the FO-measured effective ICR (FO-ICR), was 5.27 . Those for the uncored cables were less than 0.08 . As shown previously for NbTi- and Nb3Sn-based Rutherford cables, the FO-ICR can be significantly increased by the insertion of a core, although in this case it is still below the range recommended for accelerator-magnet use. Post-measurement dissection of one of the cables showed that the impregnating resin had permeated between the strands and coated the core with a thin, insulating layer excepting for some sintered points of contact. In the uncored cables the strands were coated with resin except for the points of interstrand contact. It is suggested that in the latter case this tendency for partial coating leads to a processing-sensitive FO-ICR.