Experimental Study on the Current Loss of MITL With Cathode Made of Different Stainless Steel

Magnetically insulated transmission lines (MITLs) are key components in present high-power generators. In our experiments, the current density flows in the cathode of the MITL are so high that current loss cannot be neglected. At an input current of 0.7-1.4 MA, an experimental study on current loss is performed with austenitic and martensitic stainless steel. An empirical relation between loss current density and input current density was found. For current density around 1 MA/cm, the results show that the loss current density is nearly a power function of the input current density, and the power indices for austenitic and martensite stainless steel are about 4.3 and 3.3, respectively.