A Novel Non-Twisted Stacked REBCO Cable-in-Conduit Conductor With Excellent Bending Performance

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables with superior bending performance demonstrate promising application prospects in fusion magnets. To this end, a novel non-twisted stacked REBCO cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) with excellent bending performance has been designed. The conductor consists of 75 REBCO tapes and is designed to achieve an operational current of 13.4 kA at 20 K under a magnetic field of 8.25 T. To validate the design feasibility, two short-length cable prototypes with different configurations were fabricated and experimentally characterized. The sample composed of 15 REBCO tapes demonstrated a critical current (Ic) of 1411 A at 77 K, while the prototype comprising 39 tapes achieved anIcof 2788 A under identical temperature conditions. Compared with the theoretical predictions, no degradation in critical current was observed in either of the two short samples. Subsequently, a 1-meter-long cable sample composed of 15 tapes was tested for bending at 77 K, revealing a critical current degradation of nearly 6% at a bending radius of 160 mm. To enhance the bending performance of the cable, we have proposed a “bend-before-assembly” approach. The results demonstrate its promising potential for applications requiring high current-carrying capacity, compact bending radius, and high mechanical strength.