Metal-Insulation REBCO Pancake Coil with Solder Surface Shunt: Testing and Modeling

Rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets can generate very high magnetic fields with superior engineering current density and robust mechanical integrity. The no-insulation (NI) winding technique, including its metal-insulation (MI) variant, enables "self-protection"against localized overheating through inter-turn current sharing, improving defect tolerance and allowing temporary current overloads. In REBCO pancake coils, the current-sharing path is predominantly confined to the edges of the REBCO tapes due to insulating buffer layers. Applying a surface shunt using solder can effectively enhance current sharing in NI/MI coils via the REBCO tape edges. In this paper, we present both experimental and numerical research on the current distribution in surface-shunt metal-insulation (SSMI) REBCO pancake coils. We tested a stainless steel co-wound MI REBCO double-pancake coil, before and after applying a soldered surface shunt, in a saturated liquid nitrogen bath. The SSMI coil was modeled using the H-formulation and rotated anisotropic resistivity to study its dynamic behavior, including inter-turn current sharing and intra-turn screening currents. Benchmarked by experimental data, the numerical model is able to study the defect tolerance of the SSMI coil during energization.