Effects of bending on cracking and critical current of Nb/sub 3/Sn ITER wires

Critical current (I/sub c/) measurements and microscopic crack investigations were performed on short samples of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) wires, designed for the CSMC (Central Solenoid Model Coil), that were bent to curvatures ranging up to 0.3% at room temperature. I/sub c/ was found to improve significantly with bending. Microstructural investigation revealed that IGC and VAC samples were nearly crack-free at all bend strains while Furukawa samples had significant cracking due to polishing and unrelated to bending.