Numerical Simulation of Explosive Consolidation of Superconducting Bulk Components

Abstract

The explosive compaction technique has been used for manufacturing bulk superconducting components, e.g. three dimensional plates and axisymmetric billets, rods, discs and tubes, with high density and good electrical and magnetic characteristics. The high pressures and temperatures developed in a very short time result in sintering and in fracturing of the original grains, inducing primarily line defects that would provide flux pinning centers in Type II superconductors. Densified superconducting ceramic YBCO bulk components of various geometries were produced by this dynamic technique and the whole process was simulated by the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA3D. In this paper, experimental and numerical results of the fabricated superconducting bulks are reported and discussed. Applications are also briefly outlined.