Quench properties of high current superconductors

A technique has been developed which allows the simultaneous determination of most of the important parameters of a high current superconductor. The critical current, propagation velocity, normal state resistivity, magnetoresistance, and enthalpy are determined as a function of current and applied field. The measurements are made on non-inductive samples which simulate conditions in full scale magnets. For wide, braided conductors the propagation velocity was found to vary approximately quadratically with current in the 2 to 5 kA region. A number of conductors have been tested including some Nb
³
Sn braids which have critical currents in excess of 10 kA at 5 T, 4.2K.