AC losses of prototype HTS transmission cables

Since 1995 Southwire Company and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have jointly designed, built, and tested nine, 1 m long, high temperature superconducting (HTS) transmission cable prototypes. This paper summarizes the AC loss measurements of five of the cables not reported elsewhere, and compares the losses with each other and with theory developed by Dresner. Losses were measured with both a calorimetric and an electrical technique. Because of the broad resistive transition of the HTS tapes, the cables can be operated stably beyond their critical currents. The AC losses were measured in this region as well as below critical currents. Dresner's theory takes into account the broad resistive transition of the HTS tapes and calculates the AC losses both below and above the critical current. The two sets of AC loss data agree with each other and with the theory quite well. In particular, at low currents of incomplete penetration, the loss data agree with the theoretical prediction of hysteresis loss based on only the outer two layers carrying the total current.