Measuring transport current loss of BSCCO/Ag tapes exposed to external AC magnetic field

BSCCO/Ag tape superconductors are developed for electrical power applications at liquid nitrogen temperatures. In these applications, e.g., superconducting transformers and power cables, an AC transport current and an AC magnetic field are present at the same time. A set-up to measure the influence of external AC magnetic field on the transport current loss, i.e., the voltage drop across a sample supplied with an AC transport current, has been developed. The magnetic field can be applied both parallel and perpendicular to the broad side of the tape conductor. An increase of the transport current loss due to the external AC magnetic field is observed. When a DC external magnetic field is applied the increase of the self-field loss can be described well by the decrease of the critical current due to the magnetic field. In the case of an AC external magnetic field this is only a minor effect. For magnetic field amplitudes higher than a certain threshold value the transport current loss is described reasonably well by the self-field loss and a dynamic resistance contribution calculated from the DC voltage–current relation in AC magnetic field.