Electrical characteristics of DyBCO coated conductors at high current densities for fault current limiter application

We report on the electrical and thermal characterisation of DyBa2Cu3O7 (DyBCO) coated conductors. Detailed I-V curves of these coated conductors are presented showing that the flux flow resistivity of these CC is 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than the one observed in HTS thin films grown onto sapphire substrates. This high flux flow resistivity, which might reflect the presence of grain boundaries, influences the switching behaviour of the superconducting line. The thermal characteristics of these coated conductors have been investigated on two aspects; the propagation velocity of the normal zone and the heating of the line. The propagation velocity is very low of the order of cm/s and a very fast increasing of the temperature of DyBCO switched line is observed. From all these measurements, the electrical and thermal behaviour of the coated conductors will be discussed.