Influences of voltage-current characteristic difference on quench development in low-Tc and high-Tc superonducting devices

We review the approaches in analysis of quench development in LTS and HTS superconducting devices. Considering description of quench from very general point of view, we analyze how the change from sharp voltage–current characteristics with high-index n to smooth characteristics with low n and other material parameters affects quench dynamics. We compare traditional approaches for the description of the quench development in LTS devices with new approaches suggested for HTS devices. Reduction of index value n and high-operating temperature leads to a change of the quench development time, temperature rising rate that make it unnecessary to use the term “normal zone propagation” for describing quench in HTS devices.