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Title: Precipitous change of the irreversible strain limit with heat-treatment temperature in Nb3Sn wires made by the restacked-rod process

Abstract

The intrinsic irreversible strain limit εirr,0 of Nb3Sn superconducting wires, made by the restacked-rod process and doped with either Ti or Ta, undergoes a precipitous change as a function of temperature θ of the final heat-treatment for forming the A15 phase. Nb3Sn transitions from a highly brittle state where it cracks as soon as it is subjected to an axial tensile strain of any measurable amount, to a state more resilient to tensile strain as high as 0.4%. The remarkable abruptness of this transition (as most of it occurs over a range of only 10 °C) could pose real challenges for the heat-treatment of large magnets, such as those fabricated for the high-luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We named this behavior the strain irreversibility cliff (SIC) to caution magnet developers. The approach to fulfilling application requirements just in terms of the conductor’s residual resistivity ratio RRR and critical-current density Jc is incomplete. Along with RRR and Jc wire specifications, and sub-element size requirements that reduce wire magnetization and instabilities effects, SIC imposes additional constraints on the choice of heat-treatment conditions to ensure mechanical integrity of the conductor.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Physics; National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States). Quantum Electromagnetics Division; Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). Applied Superconductivity Center. National High Magnetic Field Lab.
  2. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States). Quantum Electromagnetics Division
  3. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). Applied Superconductivity Center. National High Magnetic Field Lab.
  4. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States). Statistical Engineering Division
  5. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Physics; National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States). Quantum Electromagnetics Division
  6. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1500008
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-07ER41451; SC0010690; SC0012083; SC0017657; AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1157490
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; applied physics; superconducting properties and materials

Citation Formats

Cheggour, Najib, Stauffer, Theodore C., Starch, William, Lee, Peter J., Splett, Jolene D., Goodrich, Loren F., and Ghosh, Arup K. Precipitous change of the irreversible strain limit with heat-treatment temperature in Nb3Sn wires made by the restacked-rod process. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-30911-x.
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Cheggour, Najib, Stauffer, Theodore C., Starch, William, Lee, Peter J., Splett, Jolene D., Goodrich, Loren F., & Ghosh, Arup K. Precipitous change of the irreversible strain limit with heat-treatment temperature in Nb3Sn wires made by the restacked-rod process. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30911-x
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Cheggour, Najib, Stauffer, Theodore C., Starch, William, Lee, Peter J., Splett, Jolene D., Goodrich, Loren F., and Ghosh, Arup K. Wed . "Precipitous change of the irreversible strain limit with heat-treatment temperature in Nb3Sn wires made by the restacked-rod process". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30911-x. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1500008.
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@article{osti_1500008,
title = {Precipitous change of the irreversible strain limit with heat-treatment temperature in Nb3Sn wires made by the restacked-rod process},
author = {Cheggour, Najib and Stauffer, Theodore C. and Starch, William and Lee, Peter J. and Splett, Jolene D. and Goodrich, Loren F. and Ghosh, Arup K.},
abstractNote = {The intrinsic irreversible strain limit εirr,0 of Nb3Sn superconducting wires, made by the restacked-rod process and doped with either Ti or Ta, undergoes a precipitous change as a function of temperature θ of the final heat-treatment for forming the A15 phase. Nb3Sn transitions from a highly brittle state where it cracks as soon as it is subjected to an axial tensile strain of any measurable amount, to a state more resilient to tensile strain as high as 0.4%. The remarkable abruptness of this transition (as most of it occurs over a range of only 10 °C) could pose real challenges for the heat-treatment of large magnets, such as those fabricated for the high-luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We named this behavior the strain irreversibility cliff (SIC) to caution magnet developers. The approach to fulfilling application requirements just in terms of the conductor’s residual resistivity ratio RRR and critical-current density Jc is incomplete. Along with RRR and Jc wire specifications, and sub-element size requirements that reduce wire magnetization and instabilities effects, SIC imposes additional constraints on the choice of heat-treatment conditions to ensure mechanical integrity of the conductor.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-30911-x},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = ,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30911-x
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Cited by: 10 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Comparison of $I$c(ε) at 4.04 K and 15 T for samples of an RRP Ti-doped Nb3Sn wire (billet 11976-1), heat-treated for 48 hours at (a) 640 °C and (b) 664 °C. Beyond the reversible regime (ε > ε$irr$), the unloaded curve deviates more from the loaded curve formore » the 640 °C heat-treatment, indicating a more pronounced irreversible degradation of $I$c. The sample was loaded and partially unloaded (by constant axial-strain steps of about 0.09%) to obtain the “loaded” and “unloaded” $I$c(ε) curves, represented by solid and empty symbols, respectively. Corresponding loaded and unloaded points are labelled by unprimed and primed letters, respectively (for example, strain point A$′$ is obtained after partially unloading axial strain off the sample from the strain point A). ε$irr$ is defined as the applied strain that produces the first splitting of these two curves. ε$max$ is the applied strain that compensates for the sample’s pre-compressive strain, which arises from cooling the sample from heattreatment temperature to 4 K and the thermal-contraction mismatch amongst the wire constituents as well as Cu-Be material of the Walters’ spring (the sample was soldered to the spring). ε$irr$,0 (=ε$irr$ − ε$max$) is the intrinsic irreversible strain limit.« less
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Works referenced in this record:

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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Implications of the strain irreversibility cliff on the fabrication of particle-accelerator magnets made of restacked-rod-process Nb3Sn wires
    journal, April 2019

    Weakly-Emergent Strain-Dependent Properties of High Field Superconductors
    journal, September 2019

    Dipole Magnets Above 20 Tesla: Research Needs for a Path via High-Temperature Superconducting REBCO Conductors
    journal, November 2019

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