Effect of soldering on current capacity and AC loss of large superconducting solenoids

A superconducting solenoid with large inner diameter has much lower current capacity than expected from short wire sample tests, and a solenoid of multi-strand cable has worse results. It is known that this degradation is observed when the inner diameter of the solenoid is bigger than a certain value (30 cm usually). However the reason is not clarified yet and some people called this just the "size effect." To obtain some clues to understand the size effect and to develop big solenoids with higher operating current, we prepared and tested two sample solenoids made of Rutherford type cables with and without soldering. Quench currents and AC losses of the two solenoid coils are measured and compared. The test results show that the soldering on the Rutherford cable improves the current capacity, but makes the AC loss much higher.