C. Albrecht et al., CURRENT LEADS - FIRST APPLICATIONS OF HIGH-TC SUPERCONDUCTORS FOR POWER DEVICES, Physica. C, Superconductivity, 235, 1994, pp. 205-208
The integration of high Tc superconductors into the structure of curre
nt leads allows thermal and electrical losses to be reduced substantia
lly. As a first step towards such hybrid leads for AC power applicatio
ns in the kA range, DC demonstration current leads have been developed
achieving 2 kA/20 kV. To this end, precursor powders and bulk parts t
ogether with their manufacturing processes have been developed and inv
estigated for four different material options, i.e. sintered YBCO 123,
melt textured YBCO 123, melt cast BSCCO 2212 and sintered BPSCCO 2223
. The most suitable physical data and technical performance were found
for the Bi-based compounds. Thus, a reduction of the 4 K heat load up
to 1/10 of conventional values was achieved in demonstration current
leads operated at 1 - 2 kA DC. (R&D project of an industrial consortiu
m in the frame of the Brite/Euram Programme)