Recent problems in superconducting devices operating at the high magnetic field regime include the possibility of substantial critical current, I c , degradation due to the delamination of the coated conductor (CC) tapes. The delamination may originate from excessive tensile radial stress and cleavage stress developed due to epoxy curing, cool-down and Lorentz force generated. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the I c response under transverse loading and the delamination behaviour in REBCO CC tapes to predict its performance in practical device applications. In this study, using the anvil test method, the delamination strength and the transverse tensile stress response of I c in GdBCO CC tapes were investigated. Under transverse tensile stress, the I c degradation in GdBCO CC tapes showed both abrupt and gradual behaviours. A reversible I c degradation behaviour was also observed which was similar to the case under uniaxial tension. The electro-mechanical and mechanical delamination strengths were determined, wherein both increased when a smaller-sized anvil was used during the delamination test. The electro-mechanical delamination strength was approximately half of the mechanical delamination strength in the GdBCO CC tapes tested. Four delamination modes were observed and well correlated with electro-mechanical delamination strength and I c degradation behaviour. Lastly, delamination sites within the CC tapes were also correlated with the I c degradation behaviour that had been observed.

Rare-earth-Ba-Cu-O (REBCO) based coated conductors (CCs) are now being used for electric device applications. For coil-based applications such as motors, generators and magnets, the CC tape needs to have robust mechanical strength along both the longitudinal and transverse directions. The CC tape in these coils is subjected to transverse tensile stresses during cool-down and operation, which results in delamination within and between constituent layers. In this study, in order to explain the behaviour observed in the evaluation of c-axis delamination strength in Cu-stabilized GdBCO CC tapes by anvil tests, numerical analysis of the mechanical stress distribution within the CC tape has been performed. The upper anvil size was varied in the analysis to understand the effect of anvil size on stress distribution within the multilayered CC tape, which is closely related to the delamination strength, delamination mode and delamination sites that were experimentally observed. The numerical simulation results showed that, when an anvil size covering the whole tape width was used, the REBCO coating film was subjected to the largest stress, which could result in low mechanical delamination and electromechanical delamination strengths. Meanwhile, when smaller-sized anvils were used, the copper stabilizer layer would experience the largest stress among all the constituent layers of the CC tape, which could result in higher mechanical and electromechanical delamination strengths, as well as high scattering of both of these delamination strengths. As a whole, the numerical simulation results could explain the damage evolution observed in CC tapes tested under transverse tensile stress, as well as the transverse tensile stress response of the critical current, I c .

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The effects of low cyclic loading on the critical current, Ic, under uniaxial and transverse loadings, and bending deformations in GdBCO coated conductor (CC) tapes were evaluated. Under monotonic continuous bending deformation, CC tapes exhibit a high tolerance of Ic up to the lowest bending diameter of 12 mm using the Goldacker bending test rig. However, when the CC tape was subjected to alternate tension–compression bending, a lower irreversible bending strain limit was measured. This was also observed when cyclic bending was applied to the CC tapes which showed a significant decrease in Ic just after 10 cycles of alternate tension–compression bending at 20 mm bending diameter. Such different Ic degradation behavior under different bending deformation procedures gave insight into the proper handling of CC tapes from manufacturing, coiling and up to operating conditions. In the case of uniaxial tension, when electromechanical properties of CC tape were evaluated by repeated loading based on a critical stress level obtained under monotonic loading, Ic also did not show significant change in its degradation behavior up to the irreversible stress limit. The GdBCO CC tape adopted can allow cyclic loading up to 100 cycles without significant irreversible degradation below the monotonic irreversible limit. In the case of the transverse cyclic test, with regard to the large scattering of data especially in the tensile direction, a different cyclic loading procedure was established. For 10 repeated loadings, the mechanical and electromechanical properties of the GdBCO CC tapes showed similar values within the reversible range under the monotonic loading. Ic degraded abruptly indicating that no delamination occurred at the REBCO film during the subcritical cyclic loading. Different fracture morphologies were observed under cyclic loading depicting branch-like patterns of the remaining REBCO layer on the substrate of the CC tape.