Measurement of splice resistance and normal zone propagation velocity in REBCO tapes for the Superconducting Link of HL-LHC

The Superconducting Link (SC-Link) being developed at CERN in the context of the LHC High-Luminosity upgrade (HL-LHC) will supply the current to superconducting magnets of the HL-LHC Inner Triplets and Matching Sections. The SC-Link consists of MgB$_2$ highcurrent cables, and it includes high temperature superconducting REBCO cables making the electrical transition between the MgB$_2$ and the current leads. Electrical protection of superconducting devices made of REBCO against unexpected quenches is challenging especially when operation is at high current density. Adequate electrical protection of REBCO cables is crucial to insure good performance of the circuit over the lifetime of the machine; protection relies on the detailed knowledge of the quench propagation velocity. In this paper we reviewed the electromagnetic properties of REBCO tapes procured for prototype work. We measured the splice resistance ($R_s$) of the REBCO conductors and found a significant variation among the different batches of conductor. The normal zone propagation velocity (NZPV) was reported to be affected by the interfacial resistance which is governing the splice resistance: increasing the interfacial resistance enhances the NZPV. In order to determinate the influence of the internal resistance on the quench behaviour of the tapes, we investigated the normal zone propagation velocity of the epoxy-impregnated tapes at 77 K in self-field and 4.2 K in field up to 7 T in the FRESCA test station. We found that despite the $R_s$ variation observed (up to factor 4), the tapes show similar NZPV at both temperatures. In addition we observed a significant field dependence of the NZPV of the tapes at 4.2 K. The results are compared to numerical simulation and discussed.