FINITE-ELEMENT MODELING OF THE POWDER-IN-TUBE PROCESS FOR MANUFACTUREOF BSCCO-2212 SUPERCONDUCTING WIRES

High-temperature superconductors have recently attracted a great deal of attention owing to their potential use in a variety of applications including power generators, superconducting magnets for mine sweepers or ship propulsion motors, and magnetic levitation transportation sys tems. The powder-in-tube (PIT) process has emerged as one of the most promising and economically feasible techniques to produce long lengths high-T-c oxide based superconducting wires. The PIT method involves m ulti-pass wire drawing followed by rolling and heat treatment. This wo rk focuses on the development of finite element models to simulate the PIT drawing process for fabrication of silver sheathed Bi-2212 superc onducting wires. The numerical models were used to predict the density of the oxide powder, the wire drawing forces, and the silver-oxide ra tio during drawing. A cap-type pressure dependent constitutive equatio n was implemented in the model to simulate the powder behavior. The mo del incorporated experimentally obtained material data for the silver and powder. Data from wire drawing experiments were used to verify mod el predictions.