Rolling process plays an important role in the manufacture of Bi-based high temperature superconductor tapes, and the plastic flow regularities of the superconducting wires during deformation will directly affect the ultimate quality of the tapes. In order to investigate the effect of cross-sectional shapes before flat rolling on the performance and homogeneity of the tapes, some numerical models of Bi-2223/Ag wires with different cross-sectional shapes including circular, square, elliptical and racetrack cross-sections are constructed during the rolling process. By comparing the relative density, logarithmic strain ratio and length-width ratio on the filaments, it is revealed that Bi-2223/Ag wire with special-shaped cross-section can achieve better conductivity than the round wire, in particular, the racetrack cross-sectional wire has the second best performance among four wires. Based on material processability and experimental condition, tri-pass racetrack drawing technique is employed to optimize the process and obtain racetrack cross-sectional wire. The rolling process of Bi-2223/Ag wire with racetrack cross-section causes more intensive deformation of filaments in the center of the tape and achieves the filaments with larger length-width ratio. Also, the deformation distribution of filaments verifies the numerical results. Consequently, the racetrack drawing technique can be utilized for a reference during the mechanical processing and to increase the current transmission capacities of Bi-2223/Ag tapes.
An equivalent continuum method and a deformable discrete method to describe the mechanical behaviors of superconducting powder BSCCO (BiSrCaCuO) aggregate are studied syste-matically. The equivalent continuum model idealizes the aggregation of the powder as an equivalent continuum material. The powder aggregate yielding is caused by not only the deviatoric stress but also the hydrostatic stress and the modified Drucker-Prager/Cap model is adopted to describe the mechanical behaviors of BSCCO powder aggregate in continuum method. The deformable discrete model is known as a direct model, which considers the discrete nature of the powder particles. Its framework encompasses the local behaviors between the particles, such as particles contact, sliding and rolling. Based on commercial finite element software ABAQUS, the equivalent continuum model and the deformable discrete model are used to simulate the confined compression of superconducting powder BSCCO, and the numerical results show agreement with experimental results, which verify the correctness of these built models. Compared with the equivalent continuum model based on macroscopic statistics method, the deformable discrete model can present the microscopic information during processing and can describe the nature of mechanical behaviors of superconducting powder BSCCO. But from an industrial viewpoint, the equivalent continuum model has a definitive edge over the microscopic models in that the gross behavior of the powder mass can be modeled and simulated on an industrial scale.
