Significant reduction in volume, stored energy and magnetization loss of high-field magnet coil based on the improvement of critical current characteristics in GdBCO coated conductor

Abstract We have characterized current transport properties in a GdBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ coated conductor fabricated by a combination of ion-beam assisted deposition (IBAD) method and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method with reel-to-reel systems, and have applied them to a coil design for a high-field magnet. The J - E characteristics in the conductor are given as a function of temperature, magnetic field and the field angle based on percolation transition model, and its potential as a high-field magnet coil is discussed based on a finite element method analysis. As a result, we have found that the conductor with I c  = 350 A/cm-w at 77 K and self-field has a possibility to realize a 40 T magnet coil with very compact size (300 mm in outside diameter) and small usage of the coated conductor (8 km). Furthermore, we have also investigated the relationship between the scale of the magnet coil and the corresponding requirements for the conductor. Consequently, it has been suggested that the improvement of critical current characteristics of the conductor greatly advances the downsizing of the coil without large increment in hoop tensile force. In addition, it has also been found that such downsizing of the coil contributes to the reduction in stored energy and total magnetization loss of the coil. This means that the recent improvement of critical current characteristics in coated conductors is especially worthwhile for high-field magnet coils in terms not only of downsizing but also of quench protection and magnetizing/demagnetizing operation.