Brittle superconducting magnets: an equivilent strain model

Abstract

In conventional structural problems an equivalent stress model is typically used to verify mechanical soundness. In the superconducting community a simple scalar equivalent strain to be used in place of an equivalent stress would be an extremely useful tool. As is well known in fundamental mechanics, there is not one single way to reduce a multiaxial strain state as represented by a 2 nd order tensor to a scalar. The conceptual experiment proposed here will help determine the best scalar representation to use in the identification of an equivalent strain model. Index Terms-Equivalent strain, uni-axial stress state, multiaxial stress state, critical current