Nb₃Sn Wire Layout Optimization to Reduce Cabling Degradation

The next European dipole (NED) activity is aimed at the development of a large-aperture, high-field superconducting magnet relying on high-performances conductors. Part of the NED program is devoted to the mechanical study of a new generation of wires and to predict and describe their behavior under the severe loading conditions of the cabling process. A Finite Element modelization of wires was developed, allowing the wire behavior under simple uni-axial loads to be described. In this paper, the mechanical performances of different strand configurations are compared. The external diameter of the wire being fixed, several parameters are taken into account: the total number of sub-elements, the composition of the sub-elements, the local copper-to-non-copper ratio, the number of copper cells in the central region. The aim is to isolate the influence of each parameter on the wire deformations, trying to find an optimum design minimizing cabling damages.