Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

MT-232 Electrical And Electronic Materials

Tutorial Sheet 6
Q.1
Q.2
Q.3
Q.4
Q.5
i.
ii.
iii.
iv
v
vi
vii
vii
Q.6
Q.7

Q.8

Q.9

Q,1
0
a.

What is superconductivity? Give examples of superconducting

elements and compounds
What are the salient features of superconductors? Why do they not
obey Ohms law below the critical temperatures?
Explain the effect of critical magnetic fields, critical current and
isotopic mass on critical temperature of a superconducting material.
Differentiate between soft superconductors and hard superconductors.
Bring out the differences between following
Initial and maximum permeability
LTS and HTS
Magnetostriction and magnetoresistance
Magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy and exchange energy
contribution to domain wall energy
ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic soft magnetic materials
Design of soft and hard magnetic materials
Magnetic materials for recording head and data storage
Electrical and magnetic susceptibility
Prove that susceptibility of a superconductor is -1 and relative
permeability is zero.
Calculate the critical current which can pass through a long thin
superconducting wire of aluminium of diameter 1mm. The critical
magnetic field for Al is 7.9x10^3 A/m.
An infinitely long superconducting lead (Pb) rod of circular crosssection is subjected to an uniform external magnetic field
perpendicular to its axis. Calculate (a) Electron density , (b) Critical
current density, and (c) Depth of penetration at the superconductors
surface. For lead, the specific density is 11.4, atomic weight is 207.2
Kg/Kg-mole, & the velocity of sound in it is 1200 m/s.
Suppose that we have a superconducting solenoid that is 10cm in
diameter and 1m in length and turns of Nb 3Sn wire, whose critical field
at 4.2K (liquid He temperature) is about 20T and critical current
density Jc is 3x10^6 A/cm2. What is the current necessary to set up a
field of 5T at the centre of a solenoid? What is the approximate energy
stored in the solenoid? Assume that the critical current density
decreases linearly with the applied field. Further assume also that the
field across diameter of the solenoid is approximately uniform field at
the windings is same as that at the centre.
Consider two superconductivity wires, tin (Type 1) and Nb 3Sn (Type 2),
each 1mm in thickness. The magnetic field on the surface of a current
carrying conductor given by B=I/2r.
Assuming that Sn wire loses its superconductivity when the field at the
surface reaches the critical field (0.2T), calculate the maximum current
hence the critical current density that can be passed through the Sn
wire near absolute zero of temperature.

b.

Calculate the maximum current and critical current density for the
Nb3Sn wire using the same assumption as in part (a) but taking the
critical field to be the upper critical field, which is 24.5T at 0K. How
does your calculation of J, compare with the critical density of about
1011 Am-2 for Nb3Sn at 0K?