Staff profile

Staff Profile

Manager of the Fusion Energy Reference Laboratory in the Superconductivity Group

Email: m.j.raine@durham.ac.uk

Group: Superconductivity

Intergroup: Materials structure and form

Office: 144B

Tel: 0191 3343535

 

Fusion Energy Reference Laboratory

Since 2011, I have been a full-time core member of staff in the Physics Department. I am currently attached to the Superconductivity Group and was promoted to Research Fellow in 2015 and Chief Experimental Officer in 2020. Initially, I helped establish the Fusion Energy Reference Laboratory in the Department by helping to secure a substantial contract from Fusion for Energy (F4E). This contract required 10,000 characterisation measurements to be made on the Nb₃Sn strands used in the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) toroidal field coils. We additionally won a contract to perform a similar set of measurements on the Nb-Ti strands being used to wind poloidal field coil 6, as well as supply and measure Witness samples used to check the quality of the toroidal field coil heat-treatments. I am responsible for managing measurements, data analysis, project planning and the day-to-day running of the labs. I also manage/advise on the use of the Department's Physical Property Measurement Systems and Magnetic Property Measurement System. Additionally, I promote the laboratory and the Superconductivity Group by speaking at national and international conferences. This has encouraged interest in our expertise and facilities and has helped to secure new contracts from a number of other laboratories and institutes from around the world.

Types of Measurement for ITER

There were seven types of measurement used to characterise the Nb₃Sn and Nb-Ti strands of the toroidal and poloidal field coils for the ITER magnets. These are depicted in the following diagram. The reference to heat-treatments specifically refers to the Nb₃Sn strands, which undergo a react and wind process.

 

PhD Research Project - Nanocrystalline Niobium Carbonitride

I completed my PhD in 2015 and my doctoral thesis was embargoed until 2016. My work involved fabricating (and optimising) nanocrystalline niobium carbonitride, which resulted in a doubling of the upper critical magnetic field and a fortyfold increase in the critical current density. My thesis won the Harry Jones prize from the British Cryogenics Council in 2016.

 

Chapter in book

• Raine, M., Keys, S., & Hampshire, D. (2021). Characterisation of the Transport Critical Current Density for Conductor Applications. In D. Cardwell, D. Larbalestier, & A. Braginski (Eds.), Handbook of superconductivity: theory, materials, processing, characterization and applications. (2nd ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.15128/r1pn89d656x

Journal Article

• Hutson, R., Raine, M., Kiuchi, M., Matsushita, T., & Hampshire, D. (2023). HTS Cable International Round Robin: 4.4 kA Critical Current Measurements. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 33(5), https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2023.3263143
• Gillard, E., Raine, M., & Hampshire, D. (2023). Resistivity Measurements of the Strain, Temperature and Angular Dependence of the Upper Critical Field of REBCO Tapes up to 8 T. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2023.3273198
• Pessoa, A., Raine, M., Hampshire, D., Namburi, D., Durrell, J., & Zadorosny, R. (2020). Successful production of solution blow spun YBCO+Ag complex ceramics. Ceramics International, 46(15), 24097-24101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.06.188
• Keaveney, J., Ponciano-Ojeda, F. S., Rieche, S. M., Raine, M. J., Hampshire, D. P., & Hughes, I. G. (2019). Quantitative optical spectroscopy of $^{87}$Rb vapour in the Voigt geometry in DC magnetic fields up to 0.4T. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 52(5), Article 055003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6455/ab0186
• Ridgeon, F., Raine, M., Lakrimi, M., Thomas, A., Boutboul, T., & Hampshire, D. (2018). Self-field Effects on JC(B,T) Measurements of Nb-Ti Strands in High Magnetic Fields. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 28(4), Article 9001805. https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2018.2808370
• Wang, G., Raine, M. J., & Hampshire, D. P. (2018). The Cause of ‘Weak-Link’ Grain Boundary Behaviour in Polycrystalline Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 and Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 Superconductors. Superconductor Science and Technology, 31(2), Article 024001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6668/aaa1b8
• Matsushita, T., Otabe, E. S., Kim, D., Hwang, T., Gao, H., Liu, F., …Hampshire, D. P. (2018). Round Robin Test of Residual Resistance Ratio of Nb3Sn Composite Superconductors. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 28(2), https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2017.2781182
• Wang, G., Raine, M. J., & Hampshire, D. P. (2017). How Resistive Must Grain Boundaries in Polycrystalline Superconductors be, to Limit J_c?. Superconductor Science and Technology, 13(10), Article 104001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6668/aa7f24
• Ridgeon, F., Raine, M., Halliday, D., Lakrimi, M., Thomas, A., & Hampshire, D. (2017). Superconducting Properties of Titanium alloys (Ti-64 and Ti-6242) for critical current barrels. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 27(4), Article 4201205. https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2016.2645378
• Boutboul, T., Abaecherli, V., Berger, G., Hampshire, D., Parrell, J., Raine, M., …Zhang, Y. (2016). European Nb3Sn Superconducting Strand Production and Characterization for ITER TF Coil Conductor. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 26(4), Article 6000604. https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2015.2512386
• Hu, D., Ainslie, M., Raine, M., Hampshire, D., & Zou, J. (2016). Modelling and comparison of in-field critical current density anisotropy in high temperature superconducting (HTS) coated conductors. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 26(3), Article 6600906. https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2016.2521585
• Hu, D., Ainslie, M., Rush, J., Durrell1, J., Zou, J., Raine, M., & Hampshire, D. (2015). temperature superconducting coil. Superconductor Science and Technology, 28(6), Article 065001. https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-2048/28/6/065011
• Sunwong, P., Higgins, J., Tsui, Y., Raine, M., & Hampshire, D. (2013). The critical current density of grain boundary channels in polycrystalline HTS and LTS superconductors in magnetic fields. Superconductor Science and Technology, 26(9), Article 095006. https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-2048/26/9/095006
• Raine, M., & Hampshire, D. (2011). Characterization of the Low Temperature Superconductor Niobium Carbonitride. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 21(3), 3138-3141. https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2010.2095491