The degradation of the critical current density in a Nb3Sn tape conductor due to parallel and transversal strain

In order to investigate the influence of mechanical strain on the intrinsic critical density, a tape conductor is selected as a simple two-dimensional model. In a tape geometry a homogeneous strain distribution can be generated with an external load. A new experimental setup is designed to maintain two different components of the strain tensor (transverse and axial) in a superconducting tape. In this experiment the effects of the distortional and the volume strain are separated. The dependence of the direction of the magnetic field on the strain-current relation is measured by changing the orientation of the sample and the press inside the magnet bore. Preliminary three different sample materials (all Nb3Sn) are investigated with an axial strain inside the superconductor.