ECAE-Processed Cu-Nb and Cu-Ag Nanocomposite Wires for Pulse Magnet Applications

Abstract

Cu-Nb and Cu-Ag nanocomposites have recently become of interest to pulse magnet designers because of their unusual combination of high strength with reasonable conductivity. In the as-cast condition, these conductors consist of two phases, one of almost pure Nb (or Ag) and the other almost pure Cu. When these castings are cold worked as in a wire-drawing operation for example, the two phases are drawn into very fine filaments which produce considerable strengthening without an unacceptable decrease in conductivity. Unfortunately, any increase in strength with operations such as wire drawing is accompanied by a reduction in the cross section of the billet, and thus far, no wires with strengths on the order of 1.5 GPa or more have been produced with cross sections large enough to be useful in magnet applications. Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) is an innovative technique which allows for the refinement of the as-cast ingot structure without a reduction in the cross sectional dimensions. Samples processed by the ECAE technique prior to wire drawing should be stronger at a given wire diameter than those processed by wire drawing alone. The tensile properties of wire-drawn Cu-18%Nb and Cu-25%Ag both with and without prior ECAE processing were tested and compared at both room temperature and 77K. All samples were found to have resistivities consistent with their strengths, and the strengths of the ECAE-processed wires were significantly higher than their as-cast and drawn counterparts. Therefore, with ECAE processing prior to wire drawing, it appears to be possible to make high-strength conductors with adequately large cross sections for pulse magnets.