Numerical study of a 50 kA current lead using bulk high temperature superconductors

Based on the design of the 30 kA current lead with a low temperature superconductor (LTSC) forseen for the test of a superconducting pulsed model coil (POLO model coil) in the test facility TOSKA at KfK, a 50 kA current lead for the future test of a model coil for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER in the TOSKA facility was proposed resulting in a helium mass flow rate normalized to the current of 0.055 g/(s-kA) at 50 kA resp. of 0.015 g/(s-kA) at zero current. In this paper, the possibility of the use of High Temperature Superconductors (HTSC) for high current carrying current leads cooled by forced flow supercritical helium has been investigated in order to study the capabilities. The current lead behaviour has been theoretically studied under different conditions: zero current operation, nominal current (50 kA) operation, extended current (70 kA) operation, and safety behaviour (loss of helium mass flow). Two design cases which differ in the current sharing and critical temperatures of the HTSC have been investigated in order to look on the amount of helium mass flow reduction. The result is that the reduction of mass flow rate will be 50% at zero current and about 10 to 20% at 50 kA for the two cases. The transient behaviour of the HTSC lead differs considerably from the one of the LTSC lead due to the high electrical resisitivity of the HTSC. (orig.)