Systematic Approach to Examine the Strain Effect on the Critical Current of Nb₃Sn Cable-in-Conduit-Conductors

In the cable-in-conduit-conductor (CICC) design of the toroidal field system for the international thermonuclear reactor (ITER) Nb3Sn is used as superconductor material. Considering the single strand performance, the crucial characteristic is the strain dependence of the critical current. Within this context, the performance of the CICC under strain is determined by the behaviour of the single strands and additional effects related to the manufacturing process. In the framework of the European fusion technology program a task has been started to investigate single strands as well as sub-size CICC performance using different cable layouts (9, 45 and 180 strands). For this systematic approach, parameters such as the void fraction, the number of pure copper strands, the void fraction or the cabling pattern have been varied. To examine the critical properties in detail, the available test facility, consisting of two experimental setups, is capable to measure the strain dependence in magnetic fields up to 14 T at 4.2 K, by applying an axial load to the samples. Measurements on such sub-size CICC samples are presented and compared to the expected performance.