High-temperature superconducting CORC® degaussing cables for shipboard installation

The Navy aims to develop rugged high-temperature-superconducting (HTS) cables for shipboard degaussing applications that can easily be installed on-site without needing to order pre-determined cable lengths. A bundle of, or cable containing 40 RE-Ba2Cu3O7-d (REBCO) tapes would preferably be spooled at lengths exceeding 800 ft. that can be pulled through an exiting conduit or cryostat that may contain several 90-degree bends. The cable needs to withstand a pulling load of up to 1,000 lbs without experiencing any degradation. Once pulled, the cable would be cut and terminated such that each of the 40 tapes are connected in series to form the degaussing cable. Each tape in the cable should be able to carry a nominal current of 100 A with an isolation voltage of 600 V. Advanced Conductor Technologies (ACT) proposes to develop rugged HTS degaussing cables based on its Conductor on Round Core (CORC®) cable technology that has been developed for power cables in Navy ships and electric aircraft and for high-field magnet applications. During the proposed SBIR, CORC® cables will be developed in three steps to make them suitable for use as shipboard degaussing cables. First, CORC® cables will be developed in which each of the tapes, or tape pairs, are insulated from each other. Second, ACT will select high-strength, flexible cable cores that allow repeated bending of the cable during installation when the cable is pulled through a conduit. Third, reliable, and practical CORC® cable terminations that allow each of the tapes or tape pairs to be soldered individually on-site to form the series-connected bundle needed in degaussing cables will also be developed. The Phase I work will be supported by characterization of prototype cables and connectors to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach and prepare for the Phase II program in which a full-scale prototype is developed and delivered to the Navy.