Numerical analysis of ac loss in bifilar stacks and coils of ion beam assisted deposition YBCO coated conductors

In this paper we present a finite element model using the commercial COMSOL® software package for calculating the ac loss in bifilar stacks of high temperature superconducting tape. In the model, the current-voltage relationship characterizing the superconducting properties is assumed to follow a power law. The calculations were performed for infinite bifilar stacks with different values of layer-to-layer separation D. With appropriate settings for the boundary conditions, the numerical results agree well with the analytical data obtained from a recently proposed model [J. R. Clem, Phys. Rev. B 77, 134506 (2008)]. The numerical approach was also used to investigate the end effects in a bifilar stack to answer the following question: how many layers away from the end of a stack are required before the environment of a given layer is identical to that in an infinite stack? We find that the answer to this question depends strongly on the value of D. Based on this study, a model for calculating the ac loss in...