Performance degradation of YBa2Cu3O7-δ tapes after suffering lightning impulse

current
J. Sheng, H. Sun, X. Liu, Z. Jin, and Z. Hong

Citation: Applied Physics Letters 104, 112602 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4868639

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4868639
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 APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 104, 112602 (2014)

Performance degradation of YBa2Cu3O7-d tapes after suffering lightning

impulse current
J. Sheng, H. Sun, X. Liu, Z. Jin, and Z. Hong
School of Electronic, Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

(Received 12 January 2014; accepted 4 March 2014; published online 17 March 2014)
Over-current performance of YBa2Cu3O7-d tapes under power frequency has been well-studied by
previous researches. However, in power grid, superconducting apparatus will also experience
lightning impulse current under special working conditions. In this paper, two kinds of lightning
impulse current are applied to superconducting testing samples. Comparisons between
superconducting characteristics before and after the testing are presented in this paper. Explanations
of performance degradation are presented from both the perspectives of temperature and stress
mathematic calculation. A maximum endurable value of lightning current which may not cause
C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.
degradation is obtained from the testing results. V
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4868639]

Over-current reaction and performance degradation of Fig. 1(c). The basic parameters of different tapes are shown
superconducting material is crucial in power application. in Table I. The HTS tapes used in this paper all have two
Lots of previous researches are focused on the over-current layers of stabilizers. The stabilizers of Superpower tapes are
reactions and performance degradation of the YBa2Cu3O7-d made of copper; and the stabilizers of AMSC tapes are made
(YBCO) tapes under power frequency.1,2 The current limit- of stainless steel 316 (SS316).
ing characteristics, the maximum endurable voltage, and The two types of standard lighting impulse current will
temperature of the high temperature superconducting (HTS) be applied onto these samples. The amplitude of the current
materials have already been well-presented.3,4 Over-current increases from 5 kA to 40 kA, with a fixed step of 5 kA.
reaction of HTS films under nanoseconds pulse has also been During these testing, damage is observed when the amplitude
simulated and observed.5 However, in power grid, when the is increased to a certain value. The types of damage can be
superconducting apparatus is applied in the middle point of divided into two: Fracture and surface melt. The damage of
the power transformer, impulse current which lasts several the test samples is listed in Table II.
microseconds may occur in the superconducting apparatus In these experiments, appearance damage always occurs
during the lightning process. So in the design and manufac- with serious arc burning. As for some of the damaged
ture of these power apparatus, over-current reaction and per- Superpower tape, it is not fracture but melting on the surface of
formance degradation under lightning impulse has to be the copper stabilizers. It means that the damage is mainly caused
taken into consideration. by high temperature. Based on the parameters of the samples,
This paper will focus on the performance degradation of the temperature distribution during the lightning impulse can be
YBCO tapes caused by lighting impulse current. Samples calculated in the Finite Element Method (FEM) tools.
made of copper tapes, Ni-W tapes, and different types of A FEM model is built to calculate the temperature distri-
YBCO tapes are tested by two types of standard lightning bution of the testing samples. The lightning impulse current
impulse current. Characteristics of the samples, such as room is added into the model as an input current source. The sam-
temperature resistance and critical current of YBCO tapes, ples are built according to the actual sizes. The structure of
are recorded before and after the testing. Comparisons of AMSC tape is shown in Fig. 2(b), which has YBCO layer
these records are analyzed. Maximum endurable current and 75 lm-thick stainless steel stabilizers on both sides. The
which does not cause the degradation is obtained for each structure of Superpower tape is shown in Fig. 2(c), which
type of samples. Mathematics calculations from temperature has 40 lm-thick copper stabilizers on both sides. The FEM
and stress prospective are also processed to explain the dif- model contains the electrical and heat transferring modules.
ferent features of degradation. The model is built according to Eq. (1).6,7 The maximum
In this paper, 4/10 ls and 8/20 ls standard lighting temperatures of the testing samples are shown in Fig. 2(d).
impulse current are chosen as the testing current. The light- 8
ning impulse current generator is provided by the High >  ð Þ
>
>
> JYBCO n T
Voltage Test Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The >
> E YBCO ¼ E0 
>
> J c ðT Þ
waveforms of two testing lightning impulse currents are >
>
> ð Þ
shown in Figs. 1(a) and 1(b). There is a 2% error between < EStabilizer ¼ q T  JStablizer
>
the actual amplitude and the setting value. Qzsc ¼ E  J (1)
>
> ðð ðð
The testing samples are made of copper tapes, Ni-W >
>
>
> Itotal ¼  JYBCO ds þ  JStablizer ds
tapes, and YBCO tapes. The YBCO tapes are provided by >
>
>
>
AMSC and Superpower. These tapes are soldered with >
>
S1 S2
: r•ðkrT Þ ¼ Q þ q  T:
s
the copper electrodes, and the sample structure is shown in

0003-6951/2014/104(11)/112602/4/$30.00 104, 112602-1 C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

V

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 112602-2 Sheng et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 112602 (2014)

FIG. 1. Introduction of lightning impulse and of testing samples: (a) Waveform of 8/20 ls standard lighting impulse current; (b) waveform of 4/10 ls standard
lighting impulse current; (c) diagram of the testing samples.

We can find that the temperature increases with the am- some samples are obviously degraded. According to the sim-
plitude of impulse current. Some temperature of the samples ulation of temperature, the inner temperature of the AMSC
can reach higher than 1360 K (i.e., the melting point of cop- sample does not exceed 400 K even when the amplitude of
per). It means that, for the Superpower tape, when the cur- applied current is 40 kA, which means that the temperature is
rent amplitude goes up to 30 kA, the maximum temperature not the reason of degradation. In order to find the real degra-
is higher than the copper melting temperature, resulting in dation reason, another FEM model is developed to calculate
the surface of the copper layer melting. For the Ni-W tape, the stress distribution during the lightning. When the input
when the current amplitude goes up to 10 kA, the maximum current is far beyond the critical current, almost all the cur-
temperture will go up to more than 3000 K, resulting in the rent transits through the two layers of stabilizers. These two
tape being ruptured immediately. For these tapes whose sur- layers are physically close to each other, and the amplitude
face is melted, the superconducting characteristics are al- of lightning current is quite large, so the attraction between
ready lost due to the high temperature. the two layers will cause significant compressive stress on
From the simulation, we find that the maximum temper- the YBCO layer. According to the previous researches, when
ature during the lightning impulse is determined by both the the compressive stress is larger than about 300 MPa,8 some
size and the conductivity of stabilizers. In order to find the irreversible degradation will happen. Fig. 4(d) shows the
relationship between the maximum temperature and stabil- relationship between compressive stress and amplitude of
izers, simulations on YBCO tapes with different stabilizers lightning current. We can find that when the amplitude is
are carried out. Simulation results are presented in Fig. 3. As 30 kA, the compressive stress is larger than 300 MPa, and the
shown in Fig. 3, for the same lightning impulse, the maxi- degradation of AMSC tapes occurs. As for the Superpower
mum temperature decreases with increasing cross-sectional tape, the stress also becomes larger than 300 MPa at 30 kA,
area of stabilizers. The temperature of copper stabilizer is but, at the same time, the temperature is already higher than
lower than that of the SS316 stabilizer. For the same stabi- the degradation line, so the performance degradation of
lizer, the maximum temperature of 8/20 ls lightning impulse Superpower tapes is caused by both temperature and com-
is higher than that of the 4/10ls lightning impulse. pressive stress.
Considering the melting process of the stabilizers, the maxi-
mum value of simulation result is set to 1360 K.
TABLE II. Damge of samples in lightning impulse current testing.
As for the tapes which do not experience damage, the
room temperature resistance and the critical current are 4/10 ls lightning impulse current test
remeasured after suffering from the lightning impulse cur-
Current amplitude (kA) AMSC Superpower Copper Ni-W
rent. It is found that the superconducting charateristics of
10 / / / surface melt
TABLE I. Basic Parameters of different samples. 30 / surface melt /
40 / /
Sample materital Copper Ni-W HTS (AMSC) HTS (Superpower)
8/20 ls lightning impulse current test
Sample length (mm) 67–70 68–70 69–74 68–72 Current amplitude (kA) AMSC Superpower Copper Ni-W
Sample width (mm) 12 10 12 4.04
Sample thickness (mm) 0.08 0.05 0.31–0.32 0.14–0.15 10 / / / fracture
Sample resistance (mX) 8 153 8 13 25 / fracture /
Critical current (A) / / 450 289 40 / /

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 112602-3 Sheng et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 112602 (2014)

FIG. 2. Temperature simulation results of testing samples: (a)Structure of FEM model; (b)physical structure of AMSC tape; (c)physical structure of
Superpower tape; (d) maximum temperature during the lightning impulse current.

From the experiment results, it is clear that the YBCO with the distance between two stabilizers according to
tape can withstand a large value of lightning impulse current. Biot–Savart Law. So, for the same type of lightning impulse,
For the YBCO tapes used in this paper, their superconduct- this maximum endurable value increases with size of stabil-
ing characteristics do not change after suffering the 8/20 ls izers and the distance between two stabilizers, and YBCO
20 kA lightning impulse current. Compared with the per- tapes with copper stabilizers has a higher endurable value
formance degradation under power frequency situation, the than tapes with SS316 stabilizers. For the same YBCO tape,
degradation mechanism of lightning impulse is quite differ- the maximum endurable current decreases with the duration
ent. This is because the degradation is not only caused by the time of lightning impulse.
overheating of the tape but also the overpressure of the To conclude, from the experiments shown in this paper,
YBCO layer. So the maximum endurable lightning current 20 kA can be set as the maximum endurable lightning current
depends on the structure of the YBCO tape and the wave- of the Superpower single tape mentioned in this paper; and
form parameters of the lightning current. 25 kA can be set as the maximum endurable lightning current
From the simulations above, we can find that the maxi- of the “double insert” AMSC single tape. For other tapes,
mum temperature is determined by both the size and the con- maximum endurable current changes with the physical struc-
ductivity of stabilizers. The compressive stress decreases ture of the YBCO tape, and it can be pre-calculated with the

FIG. 3. Temperature simulation results of YBCO tapes with different stabilizers: (a) 4/10 ls lightning impulse on YBCO tapes with SS316 stabilizers; (b)
8/20 ls lightning impulse on YBCO tapes with SS316 stabilizers; (c) 4/10 ls lightning impulse on YBCO tapes with copper stabilizers; (d) 8/20 ls lightning
impulse on YBCO tapes with copper stabilizers.

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On: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 20:17:12
 112602-4 Sheng et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 112602 (2014)

FIG. 4. Stress simulation results of testing samples: (a) Structure of FEM model; (b) physical structure of AMSC tape; (c) physical structure of Superpower
tape; (d) maximum stress during the lightning impulse current and Ic degradation of the testing samples.

2
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