Modeling Thermal-Fluid-Dynamic Transients in VIPER Cables With OpenSc2

In this work, OpenSc², a new open-source python-based software for one-dimensional analysis of thermal-hydraulic and electromagnetic transients of superconducting cables is applied to the analysis of thermal-hydraulic transients in a VIPER cable. This is a HTS twisted-stacked cable-in-conduit conductor for fusion machines, and samples were tested at the SULTAN facility in 2019. The OpenSc² is calibrated and validated against experiments accounting for the twisting of the tape stacks under the jacket, which is a peculiar feature that needs to be accounted for to properly reproduce the experimental data. The computed results well reproduce the experimental temperature traces in the heated region, paving the way to the use of the same numerical model in the case of winding packs wound with VIPER cables.