Superconducting Conductor on Round Core (CORC) Cables: 2D or 3D Modeling?

The HTSConductor on Round Core (CORC) Cables have been widely recognized as the proper candidate for superconducting applications such as the high-field magnets and power transmission cables. This article presents the modeling of HTS CORC cables using the FEM H-formulation model merged into the package COMSOL Multi-physics. The 2D and 3D H-formulation models of HTS CORC cables were compared and analyzed. There were two important parameters in our CORC design: (1) the gap angle between the HTS tapes in a single layer, and, (2) the degree of twist for HTS tapes (normally identified as the pitch). The 2D CORC model has much faster solving speed over the 3D model and sometimes is able to model the AC loss in a reasonable range, while, the 3D CORC model has the advantages over 2D CORC model with respect to more information in each sector with the different conditions of two parameters above, and more realistic loss calculation.