Influence of current ramp rate on voltage current measurement of a conduction-cooled HTS magnet

High-temperature superconductors (HTS) have notably different voltage current characteristic compared to the low-temperature superconductors (LTS). Due to the anisotropy and slanted electric field - current density characteristics the loss of stability in a Bi-2223/Ag magnet is viewed as a global temperature increase inside the coil rather than a local normal zone. Therefore, the quench current depends strongly on the cooling conditions. In this paper a finite element method based analysis method is presented and example runs are carried out in order to explain in detail the influence of the current ramp rate and cooling on the voltage current characteristics of a conduction-cooled Bi-2223/Ag coil at 20 and 45 K. The results show that in certain operation conditions the coil critical current has a maximum value with respect to the ramp rate used in the measurements.