Minimization of the hysteresis loss and low-field instability in technical Nb3Al conductors

This paper focuses on the magnetization characteristics of technical Nb3Al conductors, in particular the minimization of their hysteresis loss and low-field instability. Unlike the case of Nb3Sn wire fabrication, the Nb3Al wire is fabricated by a phase transformation process, in which it is believed that the Jc properties of the transformed Nb3Al phase do not depend on the filament size or shape, but rather are principally controlled by the rapid heating and quenching or transformation conditions. However, the rapid heating and quenching process forces us to use high-melting-point metals like niobium as the matrix. The use of Nb strongly affects the magnetization because of its superconductivity in low fields. In this paper, the magnetization properties of several kinds of technical Nb3Al conductors, including Ta matrix wires, were studied. The use of Ta was effective in suppressing low-field instability. In addition, we propose a new process to further minimize the filament diameter by a re-stacking (RS) method, whereby the rapidly quenched strands are re-stacked into a stabilizing material tube and co-drawn. This process leads to a very fine multifilamentary structure with a filament diameter of less than 15 μm, thereby substantially reducing the magnetization, as compared with high-performance Nb3Sn wires, e.g. RRP Nb3Sn wire. The ± 3 T hysteresis loss of the RS Nb3Al conductor was 370 mJ cm-3 and the non-Cu Jc (12 T, 4.2 K) of the conductor was 1350 A mm-2. These values meet the ITER strand specification.