The application of superconducting cable (SC) materials to technology for transporting large amounts of power would overcome some of the limitations of conventional cables, such as transport losses, while requiring them to operate at cryogenic temperatures. SCs could be used to power large urban centers or to connect large renewable plants from remote areas to the grid. Since SCs have not yet reached technological maturity, we need to develop models that describe their behavior as realistically as possible in order to optimize their design and performance and to evaluate their behavior in the power grid and economic elements.

RSE has already developed and implemented models to simulate key aspects of superconducting cables. This additional report details the advances made in modeling with respect to the development of new formulations for representing the energy transferred to the cryogenic fluid due to friction and the comparison of the results of numerical simulations with the new formulations versus the previous simulations; special attention is given to the logical and mathematical steps, which are described in appropriate appendices. Finally, the report describes the development and application of a methodology for optimizing the configuration of coaxial superconducting cables under different operating conditions.