Numerical and Experimental Evaluations of the Quench Detection Performance of an YBCO/Nb–Ti d Tape

Quench detection for the high-temperature superconducting tape, especially rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) tape, is difficult due to the small normal zone propagation velocity in it. To address this issue, we have proposed a novel quench detectable REBCO tape with a low-temperature superconducting wire used as a quench detector, “REBCO/LTS d tape.” In this paper, we numerically and experimentally demonstrated the validity of the tape consisting of the yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) tape and the Nb–Ti wire used at 4.2 K under no external field. Results of the numerical simulation showed that sufficiently high voltage of 0.1 V can be detected before the maximum temperature of the YBCO tape reaches 50 K with the Nb–Ti wires having high resistance at normal conducting state. Experimental results also demonstrated that the quench in the YBCO was detected with the 1 V scale voltage by using the pure Nb–Ti wire.