Impact of Insulation Layers on Feeding Current Distribution and Transport Losses in CORC-Like Cables

The high current-carrying capacity of Conductor-on-Round-Core (CORC) cables made from second-generation high-temperature superconducting (2G-HTS) tapes makes them promising for high-field magnet and power-transmission applications. Using a full three-dimensional H-formulation model, we examine the impact of insulated versus non-insulated current-feeding schemes in a tri-layer CORC-like cable. The results show that interlayer insulation and the magneto-angular anisotropy$J_{c}(B,\theta)$strongly affect current sharing, waveform distortion, and AC transport losses. In non-insulated cables, current redistribution causes significant phase shifts and distortion beyond$\bf {60\%}$of the rated capacity when$J_{c}(B,\theta)$is considered, while insulation ensures uniform current paths and lower hysteresis losses by the consumption or disappearance of magnetization currents that occurs as the transport current increases. Conversely, at lower transport currents, the occurrence of magnetization currents becomes the dominant mechanism rendering to higher AC losses. These findings provide design guidance and new insight into how current-feeding strategies influence the electromagnetic performance of multi-layer CORC-like cables.