Numerical Study on Lightning Current Performance of Striated YBCO-Coated Conductor

Striated YBCO-coated conductor is a variant structure of the second-generation high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes. The ac loss is reduced owing to the YBCO layer of the striated YBCO tape is divided into filaments by laser scribing. Hence, it is promising for practical HTS electrical application, such as HTS transformer and cable. However, when the superconducting apparatuses are operated in the power grid, it will possibly experience the lightning impulse current in some extreme working condition. Thus, the performance of striated YBCO tapes suffering from exposure to lightning current is important to be studied. In this paper, a numerical model based on the electromagnetic-thermal coupling is built to analyze the lightning current performance of the striated YBCO tapes. The influence of structural changes on the thermal stability is discussed. The standard lightning current waveform is chosen, i.e., 8/20 μs. The simulated results show that cutting the copper edges of striated YBCO tapes will significantly degrade the lightning current withstand capacity. Instead, the degradation effect of grooves is not so obvious.