Estimating the size of disturbances due to conductor motion in superconducting windings

An abrupt conductor motion is one of the dominant origins of a premature quench in a high-performance, high-current-density, magnet. A model based on microscopic slip phenomena is proposed to estimate the disturbance energy due to conductor motion from the mechanical properties of the conductors and the winding configurations, and the stability of the conductor against the disturbance. Stability of a rectangular-cross-section conductor is better than that of a round-cross-section conductor. To improve the stability by reducing the disturbance energy, the aspect ratio (for the rectangular conductor) and the diameter (for the round conductor) must be increased.