Calorimetric AC loss measurement of MgB2 superconducting tape in an alternating transport current and direct magnetic field

Applications of MgB2 superconductors in electrical engineering have been widely reported, and various studies have been made to define their alternating current (AC) losses. However, studies on the transport losses with an applied transverse DC magnetic field have not been conducted, even though this is one of the favored conditions in applications of practical MgB2 tapes. Methods and techniques used to characterize and measure these losses have so far been grouped into ‘electrical’ and ‘calorimetric’ approaches with external conditions set to resemble the application conditions. In this paper, we present a new approach to mounting the sample and employ the calorimetric method to accurately determine the losses in the concurrent application of AC transport current and DC magnetic fields that are likely to be experienced in practical devices such as generators and motors. This technique provides great simplification compared to the pickup coil and lock-in amplifier methods and is applied to a long length (∼10 cm) superconducting tape. The AC loss data at 20 and 30 K will be presented in an applied transport current of 50 Hz under external DC magnetic fields. The results are found to be higher than the theoretical predictions because of the metallic fraction of the tape that contributes quite significantly to the total losses. The data, however, will allow minimization of losses in practical MgB2 coils and will be used in the verification of numerical coil models.