Contact behavior and tensile stiffness in CICC with CWS design.

• The geometry of the new design of CICC is formulated. • A simple theoretical model is proposed to study the contact behavior and tensile stiffness of the new design of CICC. • An efficient and stable full 3D numerical model has been developed for the identical contact and stiffness problems. Superconducting cable-in-conduct-conductors (CICC) are multi-stage structures with complex geometries. We study the contact behavior and tensile stiffness for a new design of CICC. The geometrical configurations of the new design of CICC is first formulated. Based on the superposition principle, a simple theoretical model is proposed to study the contact behavior of the new design of CICC. A wide range of numerical simulations have been performed by using finite element method. The contact force and tensile stiffness are analyzed by changing the winding laps of C u strand. Further, an extensive parametric study is conducted in which the effect of tensile stiffness on the contact properties are also considered. The results show the trend of the contact properties and tensile stiffnesses in the new design of CICC which can be used to optimize the superconducting CICC. This analytical and computational studies provide a guide for new design of CICC to improve the mechanical properties of CICC by controlling the winding patterns of each strand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]