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Spatial Distribution of Flexural Strength in Y-Ba-Cu-O Bulk Superconductors

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Article

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Abstract

In order to determine the spatial distribution of the flexural strength, three-point bend tests have been performed on bar specimens cut from four YBa2Cu3O7-δ single-grain bulk superconductors. A relatively large spread of the room temperature flexural strength, average and standard deviation of 49.3 MPa and 12.7 MPa respectively, was observed across the four bulk samples. This is attributed to the systemic microstructural variation introduced by the seeded melt growth. In particular, the strength was shown to be related to the local porosity and Y2BaCuO5 content. To further examine bulk-to-bulk variability, indirect tensile (Brazilian) tests were conducted on twelve 16 mm diameter bulk superconductors from three production batches. The Weibull modulus for these was calculated to be 8.76, suggesting that, despite the large spread in strength with position within a bulk, the batch processing of bulk superconductors can consistently yield samples with comparable overall mechanical strengths.

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Keywords

Yttrium barium copper oxide, superconducting magnets, flexural strength, Weibull distribution

Journal Title

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1051-8223
1558-2515

Volume Title

28

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P00962X/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P020313/1)
Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) (10216/113)
EPSRC (1773290)