Electric field obtained from an elliptic critical-state model for anisotropic type-II superconductors

•An anisotropic critical state model that incorporates a non-zero electric field is proposed.•The critical current density is driven by the electric field.•To determinate the magnetic properties is not required a material law for the electric field magnitude.

The conventional elliptic critical-state models (ECSM) establish that the electric field vector is zero when it flows a critical current density in a type-II superconductor. This proposal incorporates a finite electric field on the ECSM to study samples with anisotropic-current-carrying capacity. Our theoretical scheme has the advantage of being able to dispense of a material law which drives the electric field magnitude, however, it does not consider the magnetic history of the superconductor.