Compressive Stress-Strain Behavior of REBCO Coated Conductors and Cables

Rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) coated conductor tapes and cables are promising material candidates for constructing high field magnets. In both the magnet constructing stage and operation stage, transverse pressure is exerted on the tapes/cables. Therefore, understanding the mechanical behavior of tapes/cable under transverse pressure and figuring out certain properties, such as modulus and stress limits, will be helpful for magnet design and magnet simulation study. We accomplished these goals by performing compression tests on several commonly used tapes/cables in high field magnets. We found that the mechanical behavior of tape stacks can be characterized in three distinct regimes. In the first regime (<20 MPa), tape stacks underwent flattening and self-relocation. Then in the second regime (20–60 MPa), the REBCO tape stack showed a modulus of 3.1 $ \pm $ 7% GPa, and the Ni-plated REBCO tape stack showed a modulus of 1.7 $ \pm $ 6% GPa. In the third regime (>60 MPa), the REBCO tape stack and its Ni-plated derivative had a modulus of 10 $ \pm $ 11% GPa and 4.6 $ \pm $ 9% GPa respectively. Roebel cable had similar mechanical behavior to the tape stack with three regimes, and the second and third regimes showed a modulus of 3.1 $ \pm $ 5% GPa and 9.1 $ \pm $ 11% GPa respectively. The conductor on round core (CORC) cable was more vulnerable to stress, and its fracture stress was around 27 MPa.