The role of silver in the quench dynamics of RABiTS-processed YBCO tapes was examined. The voltage distribution along the 20 cm long YBCO tapes with silver thickness between two and eight micrometers was measured when different transport current pulses were applied. Measurements on each sample were performed in a conduction-cooling environment at approximately 50 K. After normal regions were induced in the sample by short over-current pulses, an operating current was applied to monitor the sample recovery or quench. When scaled to the lowest critical current, a thermal runaway current was identified and found to increase with increasing silver thickness. A simple one-dimensional model of the system supported this trend.
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