Magnetization and loss measurements on Nb$_{3}$Sn and NbTi strands for ITER and LHC

Recent developments in high energy physics have led to a demand for high magnetic fields which cannot be generated permanently by conventional magnets wound from Cu cables. The acceleration of protons in a ring accelerator up to particle energies of several TeVs or the magnetic confinement of fusion plasmas of sufficient pressure to generate approx 1 GW of fusion power, or even more, are only two examples. To reach beam to beam collision energies of several TeV for hadrons or heavy ions, accelerator magnets have to provide very high magnetic fields which can only be produced by superconducting magnets. In the case of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is planned to be commissioned in the year 2005, the circumference of the beam line is given by the dimensions of the 27 Km Large Electron Positron (LEP) Collider tunnel. Consequently each superconducting arc dipole has to provide a field of 8.36 T to bend 7 TeV protons around the ring. Apart from the total magnitude of the bending field, which necessitates to operate the superconducting NbTi magnets at 1.9 K, very strict demands have to be drawn to the quality of the field components of the guiding field. Actually, any kind of random field error would dilute the 7-on-7 TeV counter-rotating proton beams and degrade their nominal luminosity of 1034 cm sup - sup 1 s sup - sup 2. The main contributions to random field errors are random displacements of the coil positions with respect to nominal design, persistent current magnetization stemming from current imbalances in the superconducting cables and variations of the strand magnetization which come from irregularities in the strand manufacturing process. Since there will be more than one cable manufacturer, there will certainly be a difference between average magnetization values for each of them. Interfilament proximity coupling could make the magnetization higher at low fields, which could also have an influence on the performance of certain magnets in the machine. In the first part of this work, magnetization and loss measurements on 20 different strand samples which were taken from different billets supplied by two manufacturers of NbTi strands are reported, which with the use of an Integrating Coil Magnetometer as well as micro Hall sensors magnetization loops of single strands were studied. Variations in the strand magnetization could be either correlated with systematical irregularities in the strand characteristics (e.g. filament diameter) or with variations of the strand's critical current density jC. The second part of this work is related to the annealing process of superconducting magnets manufactured from internal tin Nb$_{3}$Sn strands to be used for the magnetic confinement of fusion plasma. After the successful generation of plasma burning pulses of several seconds duration (Joint European Torus, JET), magnetic fusion energy research has reached a point where a tokamak burning plasma facility, in which the thermonuclear heating balances transport and radiation losses for periods of 500 s or longer, can be seriously contemplated as a next step. Achieving this goal would be a major step forward, both in science and technology, towards the ultimate goal of magnetic fusion generation of electrical power. Therefore the main objectives of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be the demonstration of the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy on a scale close to that of an eventual thermonuclear power reactor. The magnitude of the magnetic field (approx 11.8 T) needed to confine stable a plasma of sufficient pressure to generate approx 0.5 GW of fusion power is comparable to the limiting magnetic fields that a toroidal superconducting magnet system can produce. In order to achieve the best magnet performance possible, the toroidal field (TF) coils made of superconducting Nb$_{3}$Sn cable-in-conduit type conductors have to be optimized with respect to the maximum transport current and transient field losses respectively. Actually, the performance of the superconducting magnets is mainly determined by the properties of the Nb$_{3}$Sn strands used. In order to gain information about the influence of the performed heat treatment on the strand properties in external magnetic fields, a systematical variation of the standard heat treatment, recommended by the manufacturer Europe Metalli, was started. The performed heat treatment cycles differed with respect to the temperature and dwell time of the final annealing step. The annealed samples were used for loss-, magnetization- and critical current measurements, which gave way to a set of basic guidelines for the optimization of internal tin typed Nb$_{3}$Sn strands. Hysteresis- and coupling loss measurements which were part of the optimization process are reported.