Status and progress on an HTS strand with quasi-isotropic critical current

The coated conductors (CCs), also known as the second-generation high-temperature superconducting (2G HTS) tape, has attractive potential applications in transmissions at low magnetic field/liquid nitrogen temperatures and high-field applications at low temperatures due to their excellent critical current density and mechanical performance. Its critical current density has strong anisotropy, particularly at 77 K. Because the single tape has limited capacity of carrying current, the cable or strand making of multi-tapes, stacked in parallel, is necessary. Within recent years, several cables, such as the Roebel cable, CORC cable, TSTC cable, TS cable, and the HTS-CroCo cable, were proposed. This paper presents a status and progress on a type of HTS strand made from REBCO tapes. Its quasi-isotropic critical current is experimentally confirmed for liquid nitrogen temperature, mechanical characteristics, AC losses, thermal stability, and quench characterizations are also researched. Finally, the feasible process for the production of practical length of such strand is described by processing 10 m long sample, which is promising for applications of high fields or power transmission.