Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Tapes”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records

Investigations in the tape-to-tape contact resistance and contact composition in superconducting CORC ® wires

Conductor on Round Core (CORC®) wires and cables, constructed from multiple layers of helically wound REBa 2 Cu 3 O 7–δ tapes, are a promising cable technology for high field magnet applications. An important feature of high-temperature superconductor cables is the ability to share current between conductors, allowing current to bypass drops in I c and minimizing the risk of hot spot formation, which could lead to potential burnout in the superconductor. In contrast to stacked-tape cables, which have continuous contact between tapes, in CORC® the transfer points occur at discrete tape crossovers. The tape-to-tape contact resistance, R c , plays a critical role in the current sharing capabilities and current distribution in cables. For the work reported here, special CORC® wires were manufactured using different winding parameters to investigate variations in R c . Variations comprised inclusion of a lubricant, different lubricant conductivity, inclusion of pre-tinning, and heating briefly to melt the solder. Cables were first tested as straight lengths, followed by bending to a 10 cm diameter. In straight cables R c values ranged from 1 to over 1000 μΩ cm 2 , depending on cabling parameters, with the highest values being found for cables made by the present 'standard' process. Bending the cables to a 10 cm diameter decreased R c by a factor 2–5. Tinning with PbSn decreased R c by three orders of magnitude compared to standard CORC® wires, and heat treating wires with tinned conductor resulted in only a small further decrease in R c . Based on the measured R c at an electric field of 1 μV cm –1 the resulting current transfer length between layers can range from a few millimeters to a tens of centimeters. Examination of contacts with a laser confocal microscope showed plastic deformation of the copper at the edges of the contact overlap area, apparently caused by thicker plating at tape edges digging into the copper of neighboring layers. These images reveal that only a fraction of the total contact surface may actually be touching when there is nothing to compensate for height differential. Images of the PbSn coated tapes indicated that application of solder produces a much more uniform contact surface and higher contact area. Furthermore, imaging of CORC® cross-sections confirmed that in the non-tinned cables there are many regions where tapes are not in contact, while in contrast the PbSn cable shows significantly more contact between the tapes. These different imaging techniques reveal that tape surface morphology is a significant parameter in determining R c .

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Width-bending characteristic of REBCO HTS tape and flat-tape Rutherford-type cabling

Abstract The width-bending behaviors for a rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape have been investigated. It has been found experimentally that the width-bending strain of a Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBCO) tape does not degrade the critical current as much as is expected from the axial strain. The critical current is not directly affected by the width-bending strain but by the axial strain, which the width-bending strain generates by the Poisson effect. Since Poisson’s ratio is about 0.3, the axial strain effective on the critical current is about 30% of the width-bending strain. Therefore, the width-bending strain of even 1.5% degrades the critical current by only 15% if the REBCO layer side is bent inward. However, the critical current degraded by more than 70% when the REBCO layer is outward. The width-bending effects on the critical current have been further examined, considering Poisson’s ratio changes and the neutral plane shift of the REBCO tape substrate. Those changes would occur when the material yields due to severe width-bending. Based on the width-bending of REBCO tapes, flat-tape Rutherford-type cabling is discussed. A REBCO Rutherford-type cable can provide various advantages, especially for narrow-tape cabling. The flat-tape Rutherford-type cable has better characteristics against an electromagnetic transverse Lorentz force. Furthermore, the tape length of the cable can be approximately the same as the cable length allowing for excellent tape usage. REBCO Rutherford-type cabling will be a promising high-current, high-field cabling method using thin substrate REBCO tapes. It will be useful for AC ramp-field and pulse-field applications with low AC losses and low shield currents. It notes that the filaments in the cable are symmetrically distributed in parallel. Therefore, each filament’s inductance is uniform, and a uniform current distribution among the filaments can be obtained.

Physics↗

Effect of plasma treatment on LMPAEK/CF tape and composites manufactured by automated tape placement (ATP)

Automated tape placement (ATP) process is widely used in aerospace for its advanced process control and multi-axis capabilities but faces issues like limited choice of materials and suboptimal tape consolidation. This study investigates air plasma treatment on ATP carbon fiber thermoplastic feedstock tape to address these challenges. The effects on low melt Polyaryletherketone/carbon fiber unidirectional tape (LMPAEK/CF UD tape) were analyzed. Treated and untreated tapes were used to fabricate composites and evaluated for physical, thermal, mechanical, and interfacial properties. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses revealed surface roughness changes (on LMPAEK), extent of oxidation, and the presence of hydroxyl/carboxyl groups. Composites from plasma-treated tapes showed a 7.6% increase in tensile strength, 8% in tensile modulus, 18% in flexural strength, and 8.3% in flexural modulus. Further, the interlaminar shear strength improved by 18.7%. Failure analysis showed untreated composites failed via inter-ply and fiber-matrix delamination, while treated composites experienced matrix cracking and fiber breakage. This study highlights atmospheric plasma treatment as a solution to ATP’s limitations, significantly enhancing LMPAEK/CF UD tape composites’ properties.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Tape-in-tape-out (TITO): a new approach for in-situ contact resistance measurements in high temperature superconducting CORC® cables

One of the ongoing development challenges with ReBCO high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables is normal zone initiation and local heating, which is associated with over-critical current flowing through and around local performance reductions in individual tapes. Although inter-tape contact resistances are well-reported for individual tapes and HTS cables, these measurements are a challenge in CORC® cables as current percolates through much of the cable. In this work, developments in tape-in-tape-out (TITO) automated individual tape powering experiments are presented, and a simplified modeling approach for current percolation in CORC® cables is developed. An optimization is formulated to fit the model parameters to a large set of TITO experiments on a single cable, allowing the layer-dependent inter-tape contact resistance to be extracted. Measurements are presented and discussed for a straight CORC® cable and a cable bent to a 152 mm and 76 mm radius. The approach provides both quantitative insight and facilitates better understanding of current sharing phenomena in HTS cables.

Teyber, Reed↗

A Closed Bay-Breeze Circulation and Its Lifecycle From TRACER With a New Orienteering Tape Recorder Diagram

A closed bay-breeze circulation (BBC) followed by a gulf-breeze front (GBF) was observed on 10 September 2022 during the Department of Energy's (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) TRACER campaign. Using high-resolution X-band Scanning Cloud Radar (XSACR) and a newly developed orienteering tape recorder diagram, the study analyzed radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity to identify anomalies and track the evolution of these circulations. The BBC, a mesoscale system approximately 30-km long, 30-km wide, and 2-km deep, formed from enhanced horizontal convective rolls along the Galveston Bay coast, progressing northwestward under a 6 m s−1 onshore flow anomaly and reaching 1.5 km depth with return flow aloft. The inland penetration speed was 2 m s−1, driven by an observed 6-9 K land-water temperature contrast. The GBF, coupled to the BBC, intensified with additional southerly flow, penetrating further inland after the BBC collapsed. Passing over the TRACER field site, both fronts significantly impacted boundary layer thermodynamics, dynamics, and aerosol concentration. The BBC event exhibited four lifecycle stages-formation, development, maturation, and dissipation-driven by solar heating, wind field rotation, and interactions with convective eddies and the GBF. This study provides insights into the inland evolution of coastal breeze circulations and their interactions with environmental processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Correlations Between In-Line X-ray Diffraction Data and In-Field Critical Current of Long, 4-μm Thick Film REBCO Tapes Made by Advanced MOCVD

REBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ (REBCO, RE = rare earth) tapes with high critical current can be very impactful in high magnetic field applications at low temperatures and power applications at high temperatures. A pilot-scale Advanced Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) method was used to fabricate 50-m-long, 4+μm-thick REBCO tape in a single pass. Critical currents 3.3x that of commercial HTS tapes were achieved at 20 K, 12 T in these 50-m-long tapes. An in-line 2D X-ray Diffraction (XRD) system has been used to assess the quality of the long tapes in real-time, during manufacturing. The key peaks of REBCO, REO, and BZO phases were identified and utilized for tape quality analysis. Furthermore, a 20-m tape made by Advanced MOCVD was tested over its entire length by reel-to-reel (R2R) scanning Hall-probe microscopy (SHPM) at 65 K, 0.25 T, 2 T, and 4 T. 4-mm-wide strands of Advanced MOCVD tapes showed mean critical currents at 65 K of 530 A, 200 A, and 104 A at 0.25 T, 2 T, and 4 T respectively. The combined use of in-line and offline characterization techniques provides a reliable approach for assessing long REBCO tapes during manufacturing, serving as an effective feedback source for quality control in scaled-up REBCO tape deposition processes. This advancement contributes to the production of longer and more uniform high-performance REBCO tapes for large-scale, high-field superconducting applications

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

High critical current STAR ® wires with REBCO tapes by advanced MOCVD

RE–Ba–Cu–O (REBCO, RE = rare earth) symmetric tape round (STAR ® ) wires of 1.5–2.5 mm diameter have been fabricated with 4–12 strands of symmetric REBCO tape made by advanced metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). 1.5 mm diameter STAR ® wires made with just four advanced MOCVD tape strands are able to sustain nearly the same critical current (I c ) as 2.5 mm diameter wires made with 12 commercial-grade tape strands. An I c of 1070 A, corresponding to an engineering current density (J e ) of 597 A mm –2 , has been demonstrated at 4.2 K, 30 T in 1.5 mm diameter, four-strand wire at a bend radius of 15 mm. This I c value exactly matches the Ic expected from the lift factor of the tape strands used in the wire. The 2.5 mm diameter STAR ® wires made with 12 advanced MOCVD tape strands exhibit an I c of 1075 A at 77 K, self-field and sustained currents of 2500–2750 A at 4.2 K, 30 T before burnout, corresponding to a J e greater than 500 A mm –2 . Finally, these results show that the cost of STAR ® wires can be substantially reduced using fewer tape strands of high-performance advanced MOCVD tapes and that the superior bend performance of STAR ® wires can be maintained, even using 12 strands of advanced MOCVD tapes with 4 μm thick REBCO films.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Manufacturing and characterization of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic tape overmolded long fiber thermoplastic

Light-weight construction, design freedom, integration of functions, and compelling cost element are desired by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their suppliers. The emergence of overmolding of continuous-discontinuous reinforcement enables design freedom and ability to tailor stiffness, strength, and damage tolerance for structural applications. In this work, long fiber thermoplastics (LFT) are overmolded with continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) tape are combined using extrusion compression molding process to evaluate the structural performance. The CFRTP tape overmolded LFT samples were characterized using nondestructive and destructive techniques to track fiber alignment, fiber distribution, manufacturing defects, interfacial bonding of the tape – LFT and effect of CFRTP tape on LFT. Mode 1 fracture toughness, G 1c for tape overmolded LFT was higher by 25–30% compared to literature reported G 1c . This response was attributed to excellent fiber distribution, good fiber wetting, and absence of voids at the interface. Three-point bend test indicated that CFRTP tape overmolded LFT composites were better able to resist damage under the bending load compared to constituent LFT composite. Flexural strength of the overmolded composite was higher by 119–142%, and modulus higher by 77–65% compared to constituent LFT composite. Simulated flexural results accurately represents the mechanical behavior of composites. Here, the penetration energy of tape overmolded LFT composites determined by LVI test was in the range of 27.66–30.15 J, which is significantly higher than constituent LFT composite, 7.76 J. CFRTP tape overmolded LFT composite exhibits progressive fiber fracture, matrix cracking, and interfacial debonding failure, whereas, constituent LFT composite showed catastrophic fiber fracture.

42 ENGINEERING↗

An electric-circuit model on the inter-tape contact resistance and current sharing for REBCO cable and magnet applications

REBCO coated conductor has demonstrated high current capacity that can enable high-field magnets for high energy physics and fusion applications. However, quench protection is still one of the main challenges to be addressed for these applications. In addition, Ic and n value variations along the length of REBCO tapes exist in commercial production. The inter-tape contact resistance plays a key role to develop the self protection capability in cables and magnets by enabling current sharing and suppressing excessive eddy currents. Here we propose an electric-circuit model to describe the inter-tape contact resistance and its impact on the current sharing between REBCO tapes. We report the experiments on a 2-stacked tape REBCO cable with local Ic drop to validate the model. With the developed model, we study the upper limit of the contact resistance which allows current sharing between tapes. We also study the impact of variation in Ic and n values in tapes on the cable performance. Finally, our model is expected to provide useful insight into the current sharing and target values for inter-tape contact resistance in REBCO cables and magnets for various applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

A bi-layer barrier design for 122-type iron-based superconducting wires and tapes

Iron-based superconducting wires and tapes hold great promise for high-field magnet applications. A promising design for 122-type wires and tapes based on the powder-in-tube method is using silver and copper double-layer sheaths. For this design a heat treatment temperature below ~ 779 °C is required to prevent Ag-Cu liquid formation. However, this may be below the optimal heat treatment temperature for the critical current density, and still cannot prevent Ag-Cu interdiffusion occurring in the solid state. In this work we propose adding a niobium or tantalum or vanadium (or their alloys) barrier layer between the Ag and Cu to solve the Ag-Cu interdiffusion issue, given that the group-VB metals (vanadium, niobium, tantalum) are relatively inert to both Ag and Cu. To investigate the effectiveness of this design, BaFe 1.84 Co 0.16 As 2 wires and tapes with Ag/Cu and Ag/Ta/Cu sheaths, as well as Ba 0.6 K 0.4 Fe 2 As 2 wires and tapes with Ag/Cu and Ag/Nb/Cu sheaths, were fabricated. It was found that both the Ta and Nb layers kept integral after wire drawing, but after a large flat-rolling reduction the Ta layer broke while the Nb layer kept integral. In the tapes with Ag/Cu sheaths (without the Ta or Nb layer) Cu diffused through the Ag layer and into the powder cores during 740 °C heat treatment, while in the tapes with Ag/Nb/Cu sheaths the Nb layer effectively blocked Ag-Cu interdiffusion even at 900 °C. Further, this work demonstrates that Ta is a suitable barrier material for 122-type wires, while Nb is suitable for both wires and tapes. In this design using Ag/Nb (or Ta)/Cu sheaths, we can regard the outer Cu as the conductor matrix while the Ag and Nb (or Ta) serve as two layers of barriers that suppress reactions between the components. Thus, we call this design a “bi-layer barrier” design for 122-type wires and tapes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

40-meter-long REBCO tapes with critical current over 4,000 A/12 mm at 4.2 K and 13 T by advanced MOCVD

REBa 2 Cu 3 O 7–δ (REBCO, RE = rare earth) tapes doped with 5% and 15% Zr have been scaled up to lengths more than 40 m in a pilot-scale advanced metal organic chemical vapor deposition (A-MOCVD) tool. The precursor compositions used for the long tapes were guided by a study of the influence of (Ba + dopant)/Cu content on the critical current density (J c ) of 5 and 15 mol.% Hf- and Zr-added tapes at 4.2 K and 13 T. The 40-m-long tapes exhibited a critical current (I c ) over 4,000 A/12 mm at 4.2 K and 13 T as well as over 1,400 A/12 mm at 20 K and 20 T. The critical current densities of a 40-m-long tape doped with 5% Zr at 4.2 K measured at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) were > 10 MAcm –2 and >5 MAcm –2 at 14 T and 30 T, respectively, which are over three times those of commercial REBCO tapes. The infield J c of 5% Zr-added 40-m-long tapes was similar to those of previously-reported high-performance short samples made with 15% Zr or Hf. These results demonstrate the excellent potential of A-MOCVD for manufacturing high I c REBCO tapes for use in ultrahigh-field magnet applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

AC loss and contact resistance in REBCO CORC ® , Roebel, and stacked tape cables

Abstract Many high-temperature superconductor (HTS) applications require superconducting cables with high currents while operating in an alternating magnetic field. HTS cables should be composed of numerous superconducting tapes to achieve the required current capacity. Alternating current and magnetic fields cause AC losses in such cables and can provoke conductor instability. AC losses and contact resistances were measured of several cable designs based on commercially available REBCO tapes at the University of Twente. The AC loss was measured under identical conditions for eight REBCO conductors manufactured according to three types of cabling methods—CORC ® (Conductor on Round Core), Roebel, and stacked tape, including a full-size REBCO CICC (cable in conduit conductor). The measurements were done at T = 4.2 K without transport current in a sinusoidal AC magnetic field of 0.4 T amplitude and frequencies from 5 to 55 mHz. The AC loss was measured simultaneously by calibrated gas flow calorimeter utilizing the helium boil-off method and by the magnetization method using pick-up coils. Also, the AC loss of two CORC® conductors and a Roebel cable was measured at 77 K. Each conductor was measured with and without background field of 1 T. The measured AC coupling loss in the CORC ® and Roebel conductors is negligible at 4.2 K for the applied conditions while at 77 K coupling loss was observed for all conductors. The absence of coupling loss at 4.2 K can be explained by shielding of the conductor interior; this is confirmed with measurement and calculation of the penetration field of CORC ® and Roebel cables. The inter-tape contact resistance was measured for CORC ® and stacked tape samples at 4.2 and 77 K. It was demonstrated that a short heat treatment of CORC ® conductor with solder-coated tapes activates tape-to-tape soldering and decreases the contact resistance. The reduction of contact resistance by two orders in magnitude to tens of nΩm is comparable with the interstrand contact resistance in ITER Nb 3 Sn type conductors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Examining the Impact of Data Layout on Tape on Data Recall Performance for ATLAS

Increases in data volumes are forcing high-energy and nuclear physics experiments to store more frequently accessed data on tape. Extracting the maximum performance from tape drives is critical to make this viable from a data availability and system cost standpoint. The nature of data ingest and retrieval in an experimental physics environment make achieving high access performance difficult given the inherent limitations of magnetic tape. Tailoring the layout of data on tape is one key to improving read performance. This paper highlights the work in progress to characterize ATLAS data ingested in the tape system, understand how data layout, i.e. file co-location on tape and file distribution over tapes, affect read performance and how optimal data layout might be achieved in a production environment.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Dynamics of Current-Sharing Within a REBCO Tape-Stack Cable

Current redistribution in a non-insulating REBCO tape-stack cable may enable the use of such a cable in a high field dipole without provision for transposition of the constituent tapes. As current is increased in the REBCO cable a dynamic resistance arises in the superconducting layer near operation at critical current. The critical current of each tape in the stack is determined by the local magnetic field variation within the cable. The superconducting-normal transition in REBCO occurs over a working range of current and, within that range, the longitudinal Ohmic electric field produces a transverse electric field between adjacent tapes with different critical currents. Circuit models indicate that, as a given tape approaches critical operation, current will naturally redistribute to neighboring tapes with higher current carrying capacity due to the dynamic rise in resistivity thus preventing premature quench. Here, a multi-scale model is being developed to study the dynamics of current-sharing, the limits of stability, and the impact of fluctuations in critical-current density along each tape.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

An Exact Algorithm for the Linear Tape Scheduling Problem

Magnetic tapes are often considered as an outdated storage technology, yet they are still used to store huge amounts of data. Their main interests are a large capacity and a low price per gigabyte, which come at the cost of a much larger file access time than on disks. With tapes, finding the right ordering of multiple file accesses is thus key to performance. Moving the reading head back and forth along a kilometer long tape has a non-negligible cost and unnecessary movements thus have to be avoided. However, the optimization of tape request ordering has rarely been studied in the scheduling literature, much less than I/O scheduling on disks. For instance, minimizing the average service time for several read requests on a linear tape remains an open question. Therefore, in this paper, we aim at improving the quality of service experienced by users of tape storage systems, and not only the peak performance of such systems. To this end, we propose a reasonable polynomial-time exact algorithm while this problem and simpler variants have been conjectured NP-hard. We also refine the proposed model by considering U-turn penalty costs accounting for inherent mechanical accelerations. Then, we propose a low-cost variant of our optimal algorithm by restricting the solution space, yet still yielding an accurate suboptimal solution. Finally, we compare our algorithms to existing solutions from the literature on logs of the mass storage management system of a major datacenter. This allows us to assess the quality of previous solutions and the improvement achieved by our low-cost algorithm. Aiming for reproducibility, we make available the complete implementation of the algorithms used in our evaluation, alongside the dataset of tape requests that is, to the best of our knowledge, the first of its kind to be publicly released.

Honoré, Valentin↗

Investigation of HTS Twisted Stacked-Tape Cable (TSTC) Conductor for High-Field, High-Current Fusion Magnets

The critical currents of a twisted single-tape were measured at 4.2 K in fields up to 17 T. It was confirmed that the critical current of a twisted-tape was similar to that of a flat tape in c-axis fields. Based on the single-tape critical-currents, a 40-tape (4-mm width) twisted stacked-tape cable (TSTC) conductor was experimentally evaluated at fields up to 17 T at 4.2 K. It was found that the Lorentz load degradation of the TSTC conductor was negligible at the end of a cyclic test. The TSTC cabling method has been considered to be suitable for developing a high-field high-current REBCO conductor for magnet applications as well as power transmission cables. A method to fabricate the inner legs of a D-shape toroidal field coil using a TSTC conductor has been discussed. This method allows the conductor to properly resist the transverse Lorentz load and mitigate ac loss issues by adopting a parallel-HTS-tape flat cable configuration where necessary.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Characterization of edge damage induced on REBCO superconducting tape by mechanical slitting

Abstract Rare-earth barium-copper-oxide (REBCO) superconductors are high-field superconductors fabricated in a tape geometry that can be utilized in magnet applications well in excess of 20 T. Due to the multilayer architecture of the tape, delamination is one cause of mechanical failure in REBCO tapes. During a mechanical slitting step in the manufacturing process, edge cracks can be introduced into the tape. These cracks are thought to be potential initiation sites for crack propagation in the tapes when subjected to stresses in the fabrication and operation of magnet systems. We sought to understand which layers were the mechanically weakest by locating the crack initiation layer and identifying the geometrical conditions of the slitter that promoted or suppressed crack formation. The described cracking was investigated by selectively etching and characterizing each layer with scanning electron microscopy, laser confocal microscopy, and digital image analysis. Our analysis showed that the average crack lengths in the REBCO, LaMnO 3 (LMO) and Al 2 O 3 layers were 34 μ m, 28 μ m, and 15 μ m, respectively. The total number of cracks measured in 30 mm of wire length was between 3000 and 5700 depending on the layer and their crack densities were 102 cracks mm −1 for REBCO, 108 cracks mm −1 for LMO, and 183 cracks mm −1 for Al 2 O 3 . These results indicated that there are separate crack initiation mechanisms for the REBCO and the LMO layers, as detailed in the paper. With a better understanding of the crack growth behavior exhibited by REBCO tapes, the fabrication process can be improved to provide a more mechanically stable and cost-effective superconductor.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗