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The 2015 joint Cryogenic Engineering and International Cryogenic Materials Conferences were held from June 28 through July 2 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona. As at past conferences, the international scope of these meetings was strongly maintained with 26 countries being represented by 561 attendees who gathered to enjoy the joint technical programs, industrial exhibits, special events, and natural beauty of the surrounding Sonoran Desert.

The program for the joint conferences included a total of 363 presentations in the plenary, oral, and poster sessions. Four plenary talks gave in-depth discussions of the readiness of bulk superconductors for applications, the role of cryogenics in the development of the hydrogen bomb and vice versa, superconducting turboelectric aircraft propulsion and UPS's uses and plans for LNG fuel. Contributed papers covered a wide range of topics including large-scale and small-scale cryogenics, advances in superconductors and their applications. In total, 234 papers were submitted for publication of which 224 are published in these proceedings.

The CEC/ICMC Cryo Industrial Expo displayed the products and services of 38 industrial exhibitors and provided a congenial venue for a reception and refreshments throughout the week as well as the conference poster sessions.

Spectacular panoramic views of Saguaro National Park, the Sonoran Desert and the night time lights of Tucson set the stage for a memorable week in the American Southwest. Conference participants enjoyed scenic hikes and bike rides, exploring Old Town Tucson, hot and spicy southwestern cuisine, a nighttime lightning display and a hailstorm.

Conference Chairs for 2015 were Peter Kittel, Consultant, for CEC and Michael Sumption from The Ohio State University, Materials Science Department for ICMC. Program Chairs were Jonathan Demko from the LeTourneau University for CEC and Timothy Haugan from AFRL/RQQM for ICMC, assisted by the CEC Program Vice Chair, Jennifer Marquardt from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. The Exhibit chair was Richard Dausman of Cryomech, Inc. who also served as Publicity Chair. Finally, Awards Chairs were Ray Radebaugh from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for CEC and David Cardwell from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, for ICMC.

On June 28, the Cryogenic Society of America presented three short courses: Cryocooler Fundamentals and Space Applications, a full day course given by Dr. Ray Radebaugh and Dr. Ron Ross, Superconducting Radio Frequency Systems, a half-day course by Dr. Rong-Li Geng; and Practical Thermometry and Instrumentation, a half-day course by Dr. Scott Courts. The courses were well attended and catered to both seasoned professionals and newcomers to cryogenics.

The able leadership of Paula Pair with the hardworking staff from Centennial Conferences provided outstanding conference management and operations. Thank you Paula and staff for a truly outstanding and memorable conference experience! Finally, to the attendees, authors, editors, and reviewers whose combined efforts have contributed to these proceedings, thanks very much to you all.

We look forward to the next CEC/ICMC in Madison, Wisconsin, July 9 - 13, 2017.

Details of the ICMC Lifetime Achievement award and ICMC Best Paper awards are presented in the PDF.

A list of the members of the 2015 International Cryogenic Materials Conference Committee is available in the PDF.

A list of the names and contact details of the ICMC Technical Editors is available in the PDF.

The CEC and ICMC Boards wish to thank our supporter and sponsors who have contributed to the 2015 CEC/ICMC Conference. Their contributions helped ensure the success of the 2015 Conference.

An author index for the proceedings of the 2015 International Cryogenic Materials Conference is available in the PDF.

An subject and materials index for the proceedings of the 2015 International Cryogenic Materials Conference is available in the PDF.

An index of Advances in Cryogenic Engineering (Materials) Volumes 22–60 is available in the PDF.

A materials index of Advances in Cryogenic Engineering (Materials) Volumes 22–60 is available in the PDF.

A subject index of Advances in Cryogenic Engineering (Materials) Volumes 22–60 is available in the PDF.

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Effect of microstructure on high-cycle fatigue properties of Alloy718 were investigated at 77 K by using samples with three different microstructures; fine-grained (FG), coarse-grained (CG) and bimodal-grained (BG) ones. The BG sample consisted of FG and CG microstructural regions and grain sizes of those regions were close to those of the FG and the CG samples, respectively. High-cycle fatigue strength of the FG sample was higher than that of the CG sample. High-cycle fatigue strength of the BG sample was clearly lower than that of the FG sample and almost the same as that of the CG one. Flat area (facet) was found at fatigue crack initiation site in all specimens. Facet size was similar to the grain size and found to be almost same in the CG and the BG samples. Observations of the microstructure beneath the fatigue crack initiation site of the BG sample revealed that the facet corresponds to transgranular cracking in the course grain, meaning that fatigue crack initiated at the coarse grain in the BG sample. It is deduced that the high-cycle fatigue strength of Alloy 718 with the BG microstructure is strongly affected by that of the CG region in that material.

The ITER Central Solenoid (CS) coils utilize cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) and the conduit alloy is JK2LB. The production grade conduit alloy (and it's welds) must meet strict requirements for strength, toughness, fatigue crack resistance, and fabricability. The conduit alloy must retain good mechanical properties after additional fabrication steps such as welding, coil winding strain and exposure to the Nb3Sn superconductor's reaction heat treatment. Here we present data from cryogenic tensile, fracture toughness, fatigue crack growth rate, and axial fatigue tests of JK2LB alloy and conduit butt welds, before and after the exposure to the reaction heat treatment. The tests of specimens removed directly from the conduit provide confirmation of the materials properties and the effect of the cold work and aging. The 4 K fatigue performance is extremely important to the reliability of the CS and is covered both by axial cyclic fatigue tests and the fatigue crack growth rate measurements.

Due to the constant increase of claims for all materials used in superconducting magnets in "magnetic fusion reactors", the article deals with the possibilities of increasing the mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steel tested at cryogenic conditions that ensure the transport of Helium to magnets. The aim of the experimental plan was to increase the mechanical properties of the steel grade 316LN tested at 4.2K from the original value Steel A: YS = 1045 MPa, UTS = 1528 MPa, A = 33% to the value of YS = 1204 MPa,UTS = 1642 MPa, A = 34% and Steel B: YS = 1173 MPa, UTS = 1541 MPa, A = 28% to the value of YS = 1351 MPa, UTS = 1645 MPa, A = 17%. The increase in mechanical properties of the steel grade under examination has been made by means of heat processing in the conditions of annealing: T_h1 = 625 ° C / t_h1 = 696 h. The mechanical properties of steel were evaluated using static tension tests at 4,2 K. The samples were placed in a cryostat filled with liquid helium. Except for the mechanical properties, there were also evaluated structural changes depending on the conditions of heat processing by light optical microscopy and EBSD (Electron Backscatter Diffraction). The increase of steel properties used in low temperatures was achieved by heat processing.

Fracture analysis of a standard construction steel platform deck, which had been exposed to a liquid nitrogen spill, showed that the brittle fracture started at a flaw in the weld as a consequence of low-temperature embrittlement and thermal stresses experienced by the material. In the present study, the permanent effect of a cryogenic spill on the fracture properties of carbon steels has been investigated. Charpy V-notch impact testing was carried out at 0 °C using specimens, from the platform deck material. The average impact energy appeared to be below requirements only for transverse specimens. No pre-existing damage was found when examining the fracture surfaces and cross sections in the scanning electron microscope. Specimens of the platform deck material and a DOMEX S355 MCD carbon steel were tensile tested immersed in liquid nitrogen. Both steels showed a considerable increase in yield- and fracture strength and a large increase in the Lüders strain compared to the room temperature behavior. A cryogenic spill was simulated by applying a constant tensile force to the specimens for 10 min, at -196 C. Subsequent tensile tests at room temperature showed no significant influence on the stress-strain curve of the specimens. A small amount of microcracks were found after holding a DOMEX S355 MCD specimen at a constant force below the yield point. In a platform deck material tensile tested to fracture in liquid nitrogen, cracks associated with elongated MnS inclusions were found through the whole test region. These cracks probably formed as a result of the inclusions having a higher thermal contraction rate than the steel, causing decohesion at the inclusion-matrix interface on cooling. Simultaneous deformation may have caused formation of cracks. Both the microcracks and sulphide related damage may give permanently reduced impact energy after a cryogenic exposure.

Hydrogen environment embrittlement (HEE) on austenitic stainless steels SUS304, 304L, and 316L in the high pressure hydrogen gas was evaluated from ambient temperature to 20 K using a very simple mechanical properties testing procedure. In the method, the high- pressure hydrogen environment is produced just inside the hole in the specimen and the specimen is cooled in a cooled-alcohol dewar and a cryostat with a GM refrigerator. The effect of HEE was observed in tensile properties, especially at lower temperatures, and fatigue properties at higher stress level but almost no effect around the stress level of yield strength where almost no strain-induced martensite was produced. So, no effect of HEE on austenitic stainless steels unless the amount of the ferrite phase is small.

Cu-0.3Cr-0.1Zr alloy (in mass%) is one of typical precipitation hardened copper- based alloys, and exhibited an excellent combination of high strength and high conductivities at the temperature range of 4 K to 300 K. The tensile properties, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity and magnetization of precipitation hardened and cold-rolled Cu-0.3Cr-0.1Zr alloy were measures in comparison with oxygen free copper at cryogenic temperatures. The Cu- 0.3Cr-0.1Zr showed higher yield ratio (yield strength / tensile strength) and lower the ratio of yield strength to electrical resistivity at cryogenic temperature than oxygen free copper. It exhibited high electrical and thermal conductivities, excellent non-magnetic stability and very low magnetic permeability at 4.2 K.

Mechanical testing of materials at low temperatures is one of the cornerstones of the Mechanical and Materials Engineering (MME) group at CERN. A long tradition of more than 20 years and a unique know - how of such tests has been developed with an 18 kN double-walled cryostat. Large campaigns of material qualification have been carried out and the mechanical behaviour of materials at 4 K has been vastly studied in sub - size samples for projects like LEP, LHC and its experiments. With the aim of assessing the mechanical properties of materials of higher strength and/or issued from heavy gauge products for which testing standardized specimens of larger cross section might be more adapted, a new 100 kN cryostat capable of hosting different shapes of normalized samples has been carefully designed and fabricated inhouse together with the associated tooling and measurement instrumentation. It has been conceived to be able to adapt to different test frames both dynamic and static, which will be of paramount importance for future studies of fracture mechanics at low temperatures.

The cryostat features a double-walled vessel consisting of a central cylindrical section with a convex lower end and a flat top end closure. The transmission of the load is guaranteed by a 4 column system and its precise monitoring is assured by an internal load cell positioned next to the sample in the load train. This innovative approach will be discussed together with other nonconventional instrumentation solutions.

A validation of the whole system has been carried out, where bending efforts on instrumented samples have been measured. Additionally, dedicated tooling has been fabricated for the device's optimization. The preliminary results obtained confirm an excellent performance of the system and enhance the analysis of materials under extreme conditions with state of the art instrumentation.

An apparatus and method for the low-temperature thermo-mechanical training of shape memory alloys (SMA) has been developed. The experimental SMA materials are being evaluated as prototypes for applicability in novel thermal management systems for future cryogenic applications. Alloys providing two-way actuation at cryogenic temperatures are the chief target. The mechanical training regimen was focused on the controlled movement of rectangular strips, with S-bend configurations, at temperatures as low as 30 K. The custom holding fixture included temperature sensors and a low heat-leak linear actuator with a magnetic coupling. The fixture was mounted to a Gifford-McMahon cryocooler providing up to 25 W of cooling power at 20 K and housed within a custom vacuum chamber. Operations included both training cycles and verification of shape memory movement. The system design and operation are discussed. Results of the training for select prototype alloys are presented.

The development of new generation superconducting magnets for fusion research, such as the ITER experiment, is largely based on coils wound with so-called cable-in-conduit conductors. The concept of the cable-in-conduit conductor is based on a direct cooling principle, by supercritical helium, flowing through the central region of the conductor, in close contact with the superconducting strands. Consequently, a direct connection exists between the electrically grounded helium coolant supply line and the highly energised magnet windings. Various insulated regions, constructed out of high-voltage insulation breaks, are put in place to isolate sectors with different electrical potential. In addition to high voltages and significant internal helium pressure, the insulation breaks will experience various mechanical forces resulting from differential thermal contraction phenomena and electro-magnetic loads.

Special test equipment was designed, prepared and employed to assess the mechanical reliability of the insulation breaks. A binary test setup is proposed, where mechanical failure is assumed when leak rate of gaseous helium exceeds 10^-9·Pa·m³/s. The test consists of a load-to-failure insulation break charging, in tension, while immersed in liquid nitrogen at the temperature of 77 K. Leak tightness during the test is monitored by measuring the leak rate of the gaseous helium, directly surrounding the insulation break, with respect to the existing vacuum inside the insulation break. The experimental setup is proven effective, and various insulation breaks performed beyond expectations.

Liquid propellant tank insulation for space flight requires low weight as well as high insulation factors. Use of Spray-On Foam Insulation (SOFI) is an accepted, cost effective technique for insulating a single wall cryogenic propellant tank and has been used extensively throughout the aerospace industry. Determining the bond integrity of the SOFI to the metallic substrate as well as its ability to withstand the in-service strains, both mechanical and thermal, is critical to the longevity of the insulation. This determination has previously been performed using highly volatile, explosive cryogens, which increases the test costs enormously, as well as greatly increasing the risk to both equipment and personnel.

CTD has developed a new test system, based on a previous NASA test that simulates the mechanical and thermal strains associated with filling a large fuel tank with a cryogen. The test enables a relatively small SOFI/substrate sample to be monitored for any deformations, delaminations, or disjunctures during the cooling and mechanical straining process of the substrate, and enables the concurrent application of thermal and physical strains to two specimens at the same time. The thermal strains are applied by cooling the substrate to the desired cryogen temperature (from 4 K to 250 K) while maintaining the outside surface of the SOFI foam at ambient conditions.

Multiple temperature monitoring points are exercised to ensure even cooling across the substrate, while at the same time, surface temperatures of the SOFI can be monitored to determine the heat flow. The system also allows for direct measurement of the strains in the substrate during the test.

The test system as well as test data from testing at 20 K, for liquid Hydrogen simulation, will be discussed.

This paper introduces a cryogenic tensile testing apparatus for micro-samples cooled by a miniature pulse tube cryocooler. At present, tensile tests are widely applied to measure the mechanical properties of materials; most of the cryogenic tensile testing apparatus are designed for samples with standard sizes, while for non-standard size samples, especially for microsamples, the tensile testing cannot be conducted. The general approach to cool down the specimens for tensile testing is by using of liquid nitrogen or liquid helium, which is not convenient: it is difficult to keep the temperature of the specimens at an arbitrary set point precisely, besides, in some occasions, liquid nitrogen, especially liquid helium, is not easily available. To overcome these limitations, a cryogenic tensile testing apparatus cooled by a high frequency pulse tube cryocooler has been designed, built and tested. The operating temperatures of the developed tensile testing apparatus cover from 20 K to room temperature with a controlling precision of ±10 mK. The apparatus configurations, the methods of operation and some cooling performance will be described in this paper.

High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) materials have been demonstrated to be suitable for applications in shielding of both DC and AC magnetic fields. Magnetic shielding is required for protecting sensitive instrumentation from external magnetic fields and for preventing the stray magnetic fields produced by high power density equipment from affecting neighbouring devices. HTS shields have high current densities at relatively high operating temperatures (40-77 K) and can be easily fabricated using commercial HTS conductor. High current densities in HTS materials allow design and fabrication of magnetic shields that are lighter and can be incorporated into the body and skin of high power density devices. HTS shields are particularly attractive for HTS devices because a single cryogenic system can be used for cooling the device and the associated shield. Typical power devices need penetrations for power and signal cabling and the penetrations create discontinuities in HTS shields. Hence it is important to assess the effect of the necessary discontinuities on the efficacy of the shields and the design modifications necessary to accommodate the penetrations.

The High Luminosity LHC project (HL-LHC) aims at increasing the luminosity (rate of collisions) in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments by a factor of 10 beyond the original design value (from 300 to 3000 fb^-1). It relies on new superconducting magnets, installed close to the interaction points, equipped with new beam screen. This component has to ensure the vacuum performance together with shielding the cold mass from physics debris and screening the cold bore cryogenic system from beam induced heating. The beam screen operates in the range 40-60 K whereas the magnet cold bore temperature is 1.9 K. A tungsten-based material is used to absorb the energy of particles. In this paper, measurements of the mechanical and physical properties of such tungsten material are shown at room and cryogenic temperature. In addition, the design and the thermal mechanical behaviour of the beam screen assembly are presented also. They include the heat transfer from the tungsten absorbers to the cooling pipes and the supporting system that has to minimise the heat inleak into the cold mass. The behaviour during a magnet quench is also presented.

The cold head on mechanical Pulse Tube Cryocoolers (PTCs) is subject to substantially less mechanical vibration and electromagnetic interference compared to that typically found in Gifford MacMahon coolers. However, thermal fluctuations at the PTC frequency are still present at the cold-head, typically at a level of 200 mK peak-to-peak at 1.4 Hz for a Cryomech Model PT405 cooler running at 4 K. It is highly desirable to damp out these fluctuations if PTCs are to be used successfully for running systems sensitive to such thermal fluctuations, for example, bolometeric detectors.

We report here the characterization over the temperature range 2.5 K to 6 K of two materials, GOS (Gd₂O₂S) and GAP (GdAlO₃), for use as low-pass thermal filters. These materials have antiferromagnetic transitions at around 4 K giving rise to an enhanced heat capacity and have a high thermal conductance. These are two highly desirable properties for thermal dampers in this application. Those materials were fired as ceramic discs to be tested as thermal dumpers. Thermal filter assemblies with discs of diameter 75 mm and thickness 2.5 mm and 1.6 mm (GOS and GAP, respectively) mounted in a PTC show thermal attenuation levels of x0.12 (GOS) and x0.11 (GAP) at 0.01Hz with a clean-side temperature of 4 K; the PTC induced fluctuations at 1.48 Hz are damped completely to within the noise limits (0.2 mK) of the thermometers. Experimentally determined thermal conductance and heat capacity data are reported. For this system, with a PTC cold-head (dirty-side) temperature of 3.3 K, a clean-side power dissipation of up to 30 mW is realized before its temperature rises above 4.2 K.

High-emissivity (black) surfaces are commonly used on deep-space radiators and thermal radiation absorbers in test chambers. Since 2011 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has measured the total hemispheric emissivity of such surfaces from 20 to 300 K using a test apparatus inside a small laboratory cryostat. We report the latest data from these measurements, including Aeroglaze Z307 paint, Black Kapton, and a configuration of painted aluminum honeycomb that was not previously tested. We also present the results of batch-to- batch reproducibility studies in Ball Infrared Black^TM and painted aluminum honeycomb. Finally, we describe a recently-adopted temperature control method which significantly speeds the data acquisition, and we discuss efforts to reduce the noise in future data.

The temperature dependence of thermal expansion, thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of T700 carbon fibre (T700 CFs) /epoxy composite and T800 CF/epoxy composite were investigated. The mechanical and thermal properties of the unidirectional composite material laminates (0°/90°) at low temperature were studied. The results show that comparing the composite material T700 CFs with T800 CFs, the thermal expansion and thermal conductivity performances of T800 CFs (0°/90°) are all smaller than those of T700 CFs. Typically, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of T800 CFs in 0° is very low in the temperature range of 120-300K, which reaches as low as -0.4×10^-6 K^-1. The value of thermal conductivity of this material at 0° is about 3.2 W.(m.K)^-1 at room temperature. Tensile and compression tests indicate that the tensile strength of T800 CFs in 0° direction at 77K reaches 2310 MPa, while the compressive strength is about 852 MPa. This composite material may possibly be exploited to design the critical components for practical applications such as hydrogen storage tanks.

Joints between copper and stainless steel are commonly applied in cryogenic systems. A relatively new and increasingly important method to combine these materials is electron-beam (EB) welding. Typically, welds in cryogenic applications need to withstand a temperature range from 300K down to 4K, and pressures of several MPa. However, few data are available for classifying EB welds between OFHC copper and 316L stainless steel. A broad test program was conducted in order to qualify this kind of weld. The experiments started with the measurement of the hardness in the weld area. To verify the leak-tightness of the joints, integral helium leak tests at operating pressures of 16 MPa were carried out at room- and at liquid nitrogen temperature. The tests were followed by destructive tensile tests at room temperature, at liquid nitrogen and at liquid helium temperatures, yielding information on the yield strength and the ultimate tensile strength of the welds at these temperatures. Moreover, nondestructive tensile tests up to the yield strength, i.e. the range in which the weld can be stressed during operation, were performed. Also, the behavior of the weld upon temperature fluctuations between room- and liquid nitrogen temperature was tested. The results of the qualification indicate that EB welded joints between OFHC copper and 316L stainless steel are reliable and present an interesting alternative to other technologies such as vacuum brazing or friction welding.

Past efforts of cooling high temperature superconducting (HTS) power cables by gaseous cryogens focused exclusively on helium. The limited dielectric strength of helium gas necessitated alternatives that could be used in the temperature range suitable for HTS power applications. This paper presents the benefits of gas mixtures containing helium with small concentrations of hydrogen or neon to mitigate the limited dielectric strength of pure helium gas. The expectation was that such gas mixtures could improve dielectric characteristics while maintaining the thermal, non-flammable and non-corrosive properties of pure helium gas. The AC breakdown voltage of helium gas mixtures containing 4 mol% neon or 4 mol% hydrogen respectively have been measured and compared to those of pure helium and pure neon. All measurements were performed at 77 K at gas pressure levels between 0.5 and 2.0 MPa. While the 4 mol% neon mixture did not result in any improvement over pure helium, the 4 mol% hydrogen mixture resulted in 80% higher breakdown strength. This is expected to enable higher operating voltages for gas cooled HTS power devices.

Large-scale superconductor applications, like fusion magnets, require high-current capacity conductors to limit system inductance and peak operating voltage. Several cabling methods using high temperature superconductor (HTS) tapes are presently under development so that the unique high-field, high-current-density, high operating temperature characteristics of 2^nd generation REBCO coated conductors can be utilized in next generation fusion devices. Large-scale magnets are generally epoxy impregnated to support and distribute electromagnetic stresses through the magnet volume. However, the present generation of REBCO coated conductors are prone to delamination when tensile stresses are applied to the broad surface of REBCO tapes; this can occur during epoxy cure, cooldown, or magnet energization. We present the development of an insulation system which effectively insulates HTS cabled conductors at high withstand voltage while simultaneously preventing the intrusion of the epoxy impregnant into the cable, eliminating degradation due to conductor delamination. We also describe a small-scale coil test program to demonstrate the cable insulation scheme and present preliminary test results.

Advances in additive manufacturing technology have made 3D printing a viable solution for many industries, allowing for the manufacture of designs that could not be made through traditional subtractive methods. Applicability of additive manufacturing in cryogenic applications is hindered, however, by a lack of accurate material properties information. Nylon is available for printing using fused deposition modeling (FDM) and selective laser sintering (SLS). We selected 5 SLS (DuraForm® EX, DuraForm® HST, DuraForm® PA, PA 640-GSL, and PA 840-GSL) and 2 FDM (Nylon 12, ULTEM) nylon variants based on the bulk material properties and printed properties at room temperature. Tensile tests were performed on five samples of each material while immersed in liquid nitrogen at approximately 77 Kelvin. Samples were tested in XY and, where available, Z printing directions to determine influence on material properties. Results show typical SLS and FDM nylon ultimate strength retention at 77 K, when compared to (extruded or molded) nylon ultimate strength.

In the growing field of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) applications, finding an appropriate impregnation material for cables and coils remains a challenging task. In HTS cables and coils, tapes have to be able to withstand mechanical loads during operation. Impregnation is playing a role as mechanical stabilization. However, material properties usually change significantly when going to low temperatures which can decrease performance of superconducting devices. For example, a large mismatch in thermal expansion between a conductor and impregnation material at low temperatures can lead to delamination and to degradation of the critical current. Impregnation materials can insulate tapes thermally which can lead to damage of the superconducting device in case of quench. Thus, thermal conductivity is an important property which is responsible for the temperature distribution in a superconducting cable or in a coil. Due to Lorentz forces acting on structural materials in a superconducting device, the mechanical properties of these materials should be investigated at operating temperatures of this device. Therefore, it is important to identify an advanced impregnation material meeting all specific requirements. In this paper, thermal and mechanical properties of impregnation material candidates with added fillers are presented in a temperature range from 300 K to 4 K.

Insulating materials for use in cryogenic boundary conditions are still limited to a proved selection as Polyamid, Glasfiber reinforced resins, PEEK, Vespel etc. These materials are usually formed to parts by mechanical machining or sometimes by cast methods. Shaping complex geometries in one piece is limited. Innovative 3D printing is now an upcoming revolutionary technology to construct functional parts from a couple of thermoplastic materials as ABS, Nylon and others which possess quite good mechanical stability and allow realizing very complex shapes with very subtle details. Even a wide range of material mixtures is an option and thermal treatments can be used to finish the material structure for higher performance. The use of such materials in cryogenic environment is very attractive but so far poor experience exists. In this paper, first investigations of the thermal conductivity, expansion and mechanical strength are presented for a few selected commercial 3D material samples to evaluate their application prospects in the cryogenic temperature regime.

An analytical model to evaluate bending strains of a twisted stack-tape cable (TSTC) conductor has been developed. Through a comparison with experimental results obtained for a soldered 32-tape YBCO TSTC conductor, it has been found that a Perfect-Slip Model (PSM) taking into account the slipping between tapes in a stacked-tape cable during bending gives much better estimation of the bending performance compared to a No-Slip Model (NSM). In the PSM case the tapes can slip so that the internal longitudinal axial strain can be released. The longitudinal strains of compression and tension regions along the tape are balanced in one twist-pitch and cancel out evenly in a long cable. Therefore, in a cable the strains due to bending can be minimized. This is an important advantage of a TSTC conductor. The effect of the cable diameter size on the bending strain is also expected to be minor, and all tapes composing a TSTC conductor have the same strain response under bending, therefore the cable critical current can be characterized from a single tape behaviour.

A 2 m length Twisted Stacked-Tape Cable (TSTC) conductor which was fabricated by 32-YBCO-tapes (4 mm width) with a 200 mm twist pitch was investigated at various temperatures near 77 K in subcooled- and pressurized-liquid nitrogen. The critical current of the TSTC cable which was 1.45 kA at 77 K measured from 64 K to 85 K by controlling the equilibrium vapor pressure of nitrogen bath and were varied from 3.65 kA at 64 K to 0.42 kA at 85 K. The temperature dependence of cables' critical current agrees with that of the 4 mm width YBCO tape. These results are encouraging for applications of a compact Twisted Stacked-Tape Cable application in railway systems.

To fully characterize the electromechanical behavior of a Twisted Stacked-Tape Cable (TSTC) it is important to understand the performance of the individual REBCO tapes under various loading conditions. Numerical modeling and experimentation have been used to investigate the electromechanical characteristics of two commercially available REBCO tapes (SuperPower and SuNAM). Tension and combined tension-torsion experiments on single tapes have been continued, from prior preliminary studies, to characterize their critical current behavior and mechanical strength. Additionally, structural finite element analysis was performed on single tapes under tension and combined tension-torsion to investigate the strain dependence of the critical current. The numerical results were compared to the experimental findings for validation. The SuNAM experimental data matched the numerical model very well while the SuperPower tape experienced degradation at lower stress and strain than predicted in the model. The Superpower tape also displayed greater variability in critical current between different samples as compared with the SuNAM tape.

Within CERN the development of REBCO-CORC (Conductor On Round Core) type cables is pursued in view of possible application in future detector and accelerator magnets. An important issue is the design and qualification of terminations for connecting CORC cables mutually or to bus-bars. A termination design is envisaged that combines a simple manufacturing process with a lowest possible joint terminal resistance in the few nΩ range at 4.2 K, first for a single CORC cable and subsequently for CORC based Cable-in-Conduit Conductors. The investigation concerns the effect of tapering the CORC cable within the joint to form a staircase like geometry, which allows current to pass more directly from the copper joint casing to the inner REBCO layers of the CORC cable. Simulations have shown a substantial decrease in joint resistance at operating current in the case both CORC cable and joint casing are tapered. The CORC cable and new joint were tested at CERN. In this paper, some details of the new joint design, fabrication process, and model are presented and the results are summarized.

Residual resistivity ratio (RRR) and thermal conductivity of metal matrix in metal/superconductor composite wires are important parameters for designing superconducting magnets. However, the resistivity of silver in reacted Ag/Bi-2212 wires has yet to be determined over temperature range from 4.2 K to 80 K because Bi-2212 filaments have a critical transition temperature T_c of ∼ 80 K, and because it is unknown whether the RRR of Ag/Bi-2212 degrades with Cu diffusing from Bi-2212 filaments into silver sheathes at elevated temperatures and to what degree it varies with heat treatment. We measured the resistivity of stand-alone Ag and AgMg (Ag-0.2 wt.% Mg) wires as well as the resistivity of Ag and Ag-0.2 wt.% Mg in Ag/Bi- 2212 round wires reacted in 1 bar oxygen at 890 °C for 1, 8, 24 and 48 hours and quickly cooled to room temperature. The heat treatment was designed to reduce the critical current I_c of Bi- 2212 wires to nearly zero while allowing Cu loss to fully manifest itself. We determined that pure silver exhibits a RRR of ∼ 220 while the oxide-dispersion strengthened Ag-Mg exhibits a RRR of ∼ 5 in stand-alone samples. A surprising result is that the RRR of silver in the composite round wires doesn't degrade with extended time at 890 °C for up to 48 hours. This surprising result may be explained by our observation that the Cu that diffuses into silver tends to form Cu₂O precipitates in oxidizing atmosphere, instead of forming Ag-Cu solution alloy. We also measured the thermal conductivity and the magneto-resistivity of pure Ag and Ag-0.2 wt. % Mg from 4.2 K to 300 K in magnetic fields up to 14.8 T and summarized them using a Kohler plot.

A new approach to the preparation of cores for Bi-2212/Ag wire is being developed. Nanoparticle Ag is homogeneously dispersed in Bi-2212 fine powder, and the mixture is uniaxially compressed to form highly textured, cold-sintered core rods. The rods can be assembled in a silver matrix, drawn to form multifilament wire, and restacked and drawn to form multifilament wire. Preliminary studies using tablet geometry demonstrate that a nonmelt heat treatment produces densification, grain growth, intergrowth among grains, and macroscopic current transport. The status of the development is reported.

A procedure has been developed for the preparation of small grained magnesium diboride (MgB₂) powder by reacting nanometer size boron powder in a magnesium vapor. Plasma synthesized boron powder that had particle sizes ranging from 20 to 300nm was mixed with millimeter size chunks of Mg by rolling stoichiometric amounts of the powders in a sealed cylindrical container under nitrogen gas. This mixture then was placed in a niobium reaction vessel, evacuated, and sealed by e-beam welding. The vessel was typically heated to approximately 830°C for several hours. The resulting MgB₂ particles have a grain size in the 200 nm to 800 nm range. Agglomerates of loosely bound particles could be broken up by light grinding in a mortar and pestle. At 830°C, many particles are composed of several grains grown together so that the average particle size is about twice the average grain size. Experiments were conducted primarily with undoped boron powder, but carbon-doped boron powder showed very similar results.

A structural Auger spectroscopy study of MgB₂ thin (∼140 nm) oxygen-containing polycrystalline films produced by magnetron sputtering and 99% dense MgB₂ bulks synthesized at 2 GPa allows us to conclude that j_c of MgB₂ depends to a high extent on the amount and distribution of oxygen in the material matrix. j_c reached 7.8-2.7 MA/cm² below 1T at 20 K in the films and 0.3-0.9 MA/cm² (depending on the boron used) in the bulks. The higher j_c in MgB₂ thin films can be associated with finer oxygen-enriched Mg-B-O inclusions and their higher density in the film structure compared to the bulk. Calculations of the total electron density of states (DOS) in MgB₂, MgB_1.75O_0.25, MgB_1.5O_0.5 and MgBO showed that all the compounds are conductors with metal-like behaviour. The DOS is even higher in MgB_1.5O_{0 5} than in MgB₂ and the binding energy is similar. So, the experimentally found presence of some dissolved oxygen in MgB₂ does not contradict its high SC performance. The introduction of a high amount of oxygen into the MgB₂ structure does not dramatically reduce the material's T_c and allows obtaining highjc as observed in our MgB₂ films and bulks.

Trapped field magnets have been investigated using Zr-added (Gd,Y)Ba-Cu-O thin film superconductor tapes. Trapped field profiles were examined both experimentally and by simulation over a temperature range of 30 to 77 K. A good match is found between experimental and simulation trapped field data at 77 K and 65 K, but higher trapped field values were obtained experimentally at lower temperatures. Trapped field values up to 1.55 T were measured in an 11 mm thick stack of 55 μm thick superconductor tapes arranged in a crisscross fashion with three tapes per layer. A substantial increase in the trapped field values was found by simulation, in tape stacks made with 20 μm thick tapes. Using such thin tapes, trapped field values of nearly 2 T is predicted in ∼ 13 mm thick tape stacks at 77 K.

Solder joints between YBCO coated conductors and normal metal traces have been analysed as part of an effort to develop a robust HTS lead assembly for a spaceflight mission. Measurements included critical current and current transfer profiles. X-ray micrographs were used to verify proper solder flow and to determine the extent of voiding. SEM of cross-sections with EDS analysis was crucial in understanding the diffusion of the protective silver layer over the YBCO into the solder for different solder processes. The assembly must be stored for an extended period of time prior to final cool-down and operation. Measurements of the joint resistance over the course of months show a significant increase with time. Understanding the interface condition suggests an explanation for the change.

The temperature dependence of the critical current and AC losses were measured on American Superconductor Corporation's (AMSC) second generation high temperature superconducting (2G HTS) wire produced by Rolling Assisted Biaxially Textured Substrate (RABiTS) and Metal Organic Deposition (MOD) process. Wires manufactured with two types of substrates were characterized. The magnetic substrate with composition Ni5a%W exhibits a magnetic signature and has non-negligible AC losses in AC power applications. A new nonmagnetic substrate with an alloy composition Ni9a%W has been developed by AMSC to address the AC losses in 2G HTS. The data presented show that the performance of the new conductor is identical to the conductor with magnetic substrate in terms of critical current density. The data on AC losses demonstrate the absence of ferromagnetic loss component in the new conductor and significantly reduced AC losses at low to moderate values of I/Ic. The reduced losses will translate into reduced capital costs and lower operating costs of superconducting electrical devices for AC applications.