Effect of Applied Compressive Stress and Impregnation Material on Internal Strain and Stress State in Nb3Sn Rutherford Cable Stacks

Abstract

The Nb3Sn superconductor in accelerator magnets must resist high mechanical stresses. In order to better understand the effect of the coil impregnation system on the stresses exerted on the strain-sensitive Nb3Sn superconductor, we have measured the elastic strain evolution in the conductor constituents under externally applied loads. For this purpose, a dedicated load frame that enables rotation of the sample load axis with respect to the neutron scattering geometry was installed in the Stress-Spec beamline at the neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz FRM II. The Nb3Sn- and Cu-loading strains were measured in situ by neutron diffraction under monotonic and cyclic compressive loading. So-called ten-stack samples composed of Nb3Sn Rutherford type cables with different impregnation and coil blocks extracted from an 11 T dipole short model coil were investigated.