Development of compact and lightweight terminations for stacked superconducting cables in aircraft applications

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions remains an urgent global priority, necessitating the development of technological innovations to achieve net-zero emissions. Among these, the electric propulsion system for aircraft using superconducting technology shows significant potential. In our previous study, we developed a triaxial superconducting cable. However, its weight posed challenges for application in superconducting electric propulsion systems. Therefore, we designed high-capacity, lightweight, stacked superconducting cables using REBa 2 Cu 3 O y -coated conductors (CCs) tailored for superconducting propulsion in aviation. This study focuses on the electrode architecture of stacked superconducting cable terminations, as compact and lightweight cable termination structures are crucial to implementing superconducting electric propulsion systems effectively. We developed slit-type termination as an alternative to immersion termination in our stacked cable design and provided a comparative analysis of the results of both methods. The findings revealed that the slit-type termination method substantially enhanced the current-carrying properties of the stacked cables while enabling a compact design, reducing the I c value by 9% compared with the 40–60% reduction caused by immersion termination. Furthermore, slit-type termination reduced the joint weight by approximately 90%, from 25 kg to 2.8 kg. These findings highlight the potential of slit-type termination to advance the electrification of aircraft using superconducting technology.