Experimental study on the ac loss properties of two-strand parallel conductors composed of superconducting multifilamentary strands

The ac loss properties of two-strand superconducting parallel conductors were experimentally investigated by using NbTi multifilamentary strands with a rectangular cross section. We prepared the simple situation that was supposed in the previous theoretical study (M Iwakuma et al 2002 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 15 1525-36). The two insulated strands were sparsely co-wound into one-layer solenoidal coils. They were transposed only once and soldered at both ends. The ac losses in the sample coils were measured by a pick-up-coil method by applying uniform ac magnetic field parallel to the coil axis and comparing it with the theoretical results. The validity of the theoretical expressions derived in the previous paper was verified by the quantitative agreement with experiment in all the aspects, i.e. the dependencies on frequency, field amplitude and the deviation length in transposition in both the non-saturation and saturation cases and also the threshold condition between them. The results obtained support the theoretical prediction that the additional ac loss due to the formation of superconducting parallel conductors can be much reduced by transposition whether the induced shielding current reaches the critical current of a strand or not.