FBI Measurement Facility for High Temperature Superconducting Cable Designs

High temperature superconductor (HTS) cables are sophisticated and promising cable designs for a variety of feasibilities. However, as any technical development, HTS cables need to be designed, tested and evaluated. For HTS cables, the most important parameter is the critical current, which depends on the operating parameters magnetic field, temperature and strain. To analyse the full application spectrum of an HTS cable, it needs to be tested under the influence of its self-magnetic field, different external magnetic fields, varying temperatures and mechanical stresses. The FBI (F force, B magnetic field, I current) measurement facility at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) provides the possibility of measuring the critical current of a cable up to 10 kA. With an LTS split coil magnet of 12 T and a sample gap of 80×40 mm², different HTS cable types can be measured. Mechanical forces can be applied up to 100 kN in axial direction of a cable. This paper explains the structural assembly of the FBI measurement facility, demonstrates its applicable measuring parameters and shows hitherto measurement results.