Thermal Properties of ReBCO Copper Stabilized Superconducting Tapes

In recent years, high temperature superconductors (HTSs) have been developed intensively for different applications such as high field magnets, fault current limiters, and current leads. Two-dimensional HTS-based conductors, the coated conductors, used for these applications are multilayered structures on substrate tapes, which can be laminated in addition by a metal, e.g., by copper or stainless steel. Depending on the constituents and the conductor architecture, the thermal conductivity of the whole conductor can vary over several orders of magnitude. Thermal conductivity data are required for calculation of the temperature distribution in a superconducting tape or cable, and for prediction of quench propagation in the conductor itself, and finally in a superconducting device (e.g., coil arrangement). Thermal conductivity data should be measured first of all for the HTS tape, which is used for production of the superconducting appliance. In this paper, we present results of thermal conductivity measurements of the yttrium-barium-copper-oxide copper stabilized superconducting tape in the direction along the tape. Moreover, measurements of the thermal conductivity of the tape in the normal direction are presented.