Abstract
RE-Ba-Cu-O (REBCO, where RE denotes rare earth elements) high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes are susceptible to uncontrolled quench events due to their slow quench propagation velocity. The high specific heat of the materials and the large temperature margin with respect to the critical temperature (Tc ) suppress rapid quench propagation, which in turn drives the formation of local hotspots once a quench is initiated. In addition, tape displacement during electromagnetic loading and thermal cycling could cause defects in a HTS coil, which could initiate quenches. To address these challenges, we have developed a novel slot-and-fill (slot-n-fill) tape architecture, in which slots are patterned through all structures of tapes and filled with conductive material. This design enhances current sharing across neighboring turns in a non-insulated coil and increases thermal conductivity across turns. In this work, defect-triggered quench experiments were performed at 77 K in Nitrogen vapor to evaluate quench and recovery behavior. The results demonstrate that slot-n-fill architecture significantly improves defect-tolerance in non-insulation coils, confirming its potential for enhance the robustness and reliability of REBCO-based superconducting magnet systems.