Quench-induced breakdown characteristics of liquid helium and optical observation of thermal bubbles

This paper describes the breakdown characteristics of liquid helium (LHe) caused by quench of a superconducting wire exposed to a high electric field. The quench-induced breakdown of LHe took place at a considerably lower stress than the intrinsic level which could be withstood without the quench. A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCryogenics (Guildford) Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 135 - 142
Main Authors Hayakawa, N., Hirose, M., Goshima, H., Hikita, M., Uchida, K., Okubo, H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1995
Elsevier
Subjects
Applied sciences
Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering
Exact sciences and technology
liquid helium
Materials
quench-induced breakdown
superconducting wire
thermal bubbles
quench-induced breakdown
liquid helium
superconducting wire
thermal bubbles
Superconducting materials
Breakdown voltage
Fibroscope
Liquid helium
Optical observation
Delay time
Electric field effect
Superconducting transition
Electrical characteristic
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Summary:This paper describes the breakdown characteristics of liquid helium (LHe) caused by quench of a superconducting wire exposed to a high electric field. The quench-induced breakdown of LHe took place at a considerably lower stress than the intrinsic level which could be withstood without the quench. A delay time of the order of milliseconds existed from quench onset to the breakdown. We also observed the behaviour of thermal bubbles in LHe generated by the quench using a fibrescope and a high speed video system. The optical observation clarified that the high electric field enhanced the propagation velocity of the bubbles, triggering the quench-induced dynamic breakdown of LHe.
ISSN:0011-2275
1879-2235
DOI:10.1016/0011-2275(95)92882-S