Thermal mechanisms responsible for the irreversible degradation of superconductivity in commercial superconductors

Conditions for the irreversible propagation of thermal instabilities in commercial superconductors subjected to intense and soft cooling have been formulated. An analysis has been conducted using two types of the superconductor’s I–V characteristics, i.e., an ideal I–V characteristic, which assumes a step superconducting-to-normal transition, and a continuous I–V characteristic, which is described by a power law. The propagation rate of thermal instabilities along the superconducting composite has been determined. Calculations have been made for both subcritical and supercritical values of the current. It has been shown that they propagate along a commercial superconductor in the form of a switching wave. In rapidly cooled commercial superconductors, the steady-state rate of thermal instability propagation in the longitudinal direction can only be positive because there is no region of steady stabilization. It has been proved that, in the case of thermal instability irreversible propagation, the rise in the commercial superconductor temperature is similar to diffusion processes that occur in explosive chain reactions.