Magnetization losses in superconducting YBCO conductor-on-round-core (CORC) cables

Described are the results of magnetization loss measurements made at 77 K on several YBCO conductor-on-round-core (CORC) cables in ac magnetic fields of up to 80 mT in amplitude and frequencies of 50 to 200 Hz, applied perpendicular to the cable axis. The cables contained up to 40 tapes that were wound in as many as 13 layers. Measurements on the cables with different configurations were made as functions of applied ac field amplitude and frequency to determine the effects of their layout on ac loss. In large scale devices such as e.g. Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) magnets, the observed ac losses represent less than 0.1% of their stored energy.