Test up to 80 kA of an Al-Stabilized NbTi Cable With the Upgraded Saclay Superconducting Transformer

An ATLAS Barrel Toroid conductor was tested in the Saclay High Current Test Facility. The conductor is a Nb-Ti Rutherford cable imbedded in a high purity aluminum stabilizer. The conductor's width was reduced from 57 mm to 30 mm in order to be able to use an existing sample holder. We tried to measure the critical current in background fields of up to 3 T. The field was produced by a 0.8 m long superconducting dipole magnet. The test station was equipped with a superconducting transformer transferring maximum primary and secondary currents of respectively 174 A and 80 kA. The secondary current was measured with flux coils and with a superconducting Direct Control Current Transducer (DCCT), a modified version of the “Macc+” 600 A commercial DCCT from Hitec, which was operated at currents of up to 57 kA. This paper reports on the performance of the test station, on the results of the quench current measurements performed on the stabilized ATLAS conductor and on the difficulties to measure the critical current of an aluminum stabilizer conductor.