Study of AC Losses in a 1-m Long, HTS Power Cable Made From Wide 2G Tapes

AC loss measurements were carried out on several model power cables fabricated with varying tape width of second generation (2G) high temperature superconductor. The total amount of superconducting tape used in all the cables was kept constant. The results of the measurements show that, contrary to many previous studies, the losses are not proportional to the number of tapes and the width of the gaps between tapes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the losses of a cable using 4 mm, 10 mm and 46-mm wide tapes made by American Superconductor Corporation, helically-wound around a former with minimal gap. Tests were performed in liquid nitrogen. Test results show that the AC losses for these different configurations are similar in magnitude and are in the range of ~25-50 mJ/cycle/m, or ~1.5-3 W/m at 60 Hz near the cable critical current.