Abstract
A tape conductor composed of Nb3Sn and copper is presented in order to exemplify the conductor design based on the magnetic stability criterion. The tape can carry an overall current density as high as 300Amm-2 in a magnetic field of 10T. The influence of transient thermal disturbances on the stability of the tape conductor has been analyzed theoretically. Two distinct processes characterize the recovery of a transient temperature rise. One is the cool-down of copper due to the heat transfer to the coolant and the other is controlled by the thermal diffusion in Nb3Sn. These two processes lead to two conditions to be met for stability provided that disturbances are of transient distributed nature. It is proven that these conditions are equivalent to a single criterion of the magnetic stability. The energy density of the maximum tolerable disturbance is also discussed.
