Rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) coated conductor tapes and cables are promising material candidates for constructing high field magnets. In both the magnet constructing stage and operation stage, transverse pressure is exerted on the tapes/cables. Therefore, understanding the mechanical behavior of tapes/cable under transverse pressure and figuring out certain properties, such as modulus and stress limits, will be helpful for magnet design and magnet simulation study. We accomplished these goals by performing compression tests on several commonly used tapes/cables in high field magnets. We found that the mechanical behavior of tape stacks can be characterized in three distinct regimes. In the first regime (60 MPa), the REBCO tape stack and its Ni-plated derivative had a modulus of 10 $ \pm $ 11% GPa and 4.6 $ \pm $ 9% GPa respectively. Roebel cable had similar mechanical behavior to the tape stack with three regimes, and the second and third regimes showed a modulus of 3.1 $ \pm $ 5% GPa and 9.1 $ \pm $ 11% GPa respectively. The conductor on round core (CORC) cable was more vulnerable to stress, and its fracture stress was around 27 MPa.

It is commonly acknowledged that polymer composites in service are often subjected to not only intricate mechanical loads but also harsh environmental conditions. The mechanical and thermal properties of five particular composites are explored here. The composites are composed of laminates of glass cloth type “E” sheet infilled with a duroplastic matrix. This is a thermoset polymer—epoxy resin with different molecular weights. The composites were fabricated by IZOERG company, which is based in Poland. The final articles were 1.5 mm thick by 60 cm long and 30 cm wide, with the glass layers arranged parallel to the thickness. Young’s modulus and tensile strength were measured at room temperature. Using the thermal analysis of dynamic mechanical properties (DMTA), the values of the storage modulus and the loss modulus were determined, and the damping factor was used to determine the glass transition temperature (Tg). It was revealed that the nature of changes in the storage modulus, loss modulus, and damping factor of composite materials depends on the type of epoxy resin used. Thermal expansion is a crucial parameter when choosing a material for application in cryogenic conditions. Thanks to the TMA method, thermal expansion coefficients for composite materials were determined. The results show that the highest value of the coefficient of thermal expansion leads the laminate EP_4_2 based on brominated epoxy resin cured with novolac P. Duroplastic composites were characterized at cryogenic temperatures, and the results are interesting for developing cryogenic applications, including electric motors, generators, magnets, and other devices.