Analysis of quench in the NHMFL REBCO prototype coils for the 32 T Magnet Project

A 32 T all-superconductive magnet with high field REBCO inner coils is under development at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, Florida, USA. As part of the development activity, two prototype coils with full scale radial dimensions and final design features, but with reduced axial length were constructed. The prototype coils consist of six dry-wound double pancakes modules with uninsulated conductor and insulated stainless steel cowind. Quench studies on one of the prototype coils at 4.2 K in self-field and in a background magnetic field of 15 T were performed by activating a set of quench protection heaters. In this paper, we present a numerical analysis of the experimental results of the quench tests of one of the prototype coils. The numerical analysis was carried out through a coupled electro-thermal FEM model developed at the University of Bologna. The model is based on the coupling with distributed contact resistances of the coil pancakes described as 2D elements. A homogenization procedure of the REBCO tape and other coil materials is presented, which allows reducing the number of degrees of freedom and the computational effort. The model is applied to the analysis of the current and voltage evolutions during the experimental quench tests on the prototype coil.