Magnetothermal transition in YBCO melt textured materials

Conductors cut from large YBCO single domains textured by a combination of Melt Texturing Growth and Top Seeding techniques were studied for Fault Cur rent Limiter applications. In self field, homogeneous transport critical cu rrent densities as large as 4 10(4) and 9 10(4) A/cm(2) were measured in sh aped YBCO single domains up to 5 cm in length. Above J(c), experiments focu sed on magnetothermal transitions showed that the silver coating should hav e an adequate thickness so as to prevent the conductors from burning. Capab ility of textured materials to support high instantaneous power (40 GW/m(3) ) and energy dissipation (190 MJ/m(3)) during the transition was demonstrat ed in a 4 T magnetic field. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.