A new approach to measure the electric boundary resistance between high current carrying stabilized SMES conductor and its high strength aluminum supporting structure at 4.2, 77 and 300 K

A new approach to measure the electric boundary resistance (EBR) between high purity aluminum (HPAL) stabilized conductor and its high strength aluminum (HSAL) supporting structure in large superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) coils is introduced. The magnetic forces on the conductor are supported by the HSAL structure. For better protection of the SMES coil, the conductor and the structure are in electrical and thermal contact. We have designed and conducted an experiment to measure the EBR under equivalent operating conditions. The experiment is conducted under different compressive loads at 4.2, 77, and 300 K. The electric boundary resistance (EBR) /spl rho//sub B/(/spl Omega/-cm/sup 2/)=aL/sup -b/ is a power function of the load L. The constants a and b are functions of temperature. This paper reports on an experimental method of determining the electric boundary resistance at different temperatures and different compressive loads.<>