Different magnet applications require compact high current cables. Among theproposed solutions, the Twisted Stacked Tape Cable (TSTC) is easy tomanufacture and has very high tape length usage efficiency. In this kind ofcables the tapes are closely packed, so that their electromagnetic interactionis very strong and determines the overall performance of the cable. Numericalmodels are necessary tools to precisely evaluate this interaction and topredict the cable's behavior, e.g. in terms of effective critical current andmagnetization currents. For this purpose, we developed a fullythree-dimensional model of a TSTC, which not only takes into account thetwisted geometry of these cables, but is also able to account for the contactresistances of the current terminations. The latter can have profound influenceon the way the current is partitioned among the tapes, especially on shortlaboratory prototypes. In this paper, we first use the numerical model tocompute the critical current and the magnetization AC loss of a twisted tape,showing the differences with the case of a straight tape. Then, we use it tocalculate the current distribution in a TSTC cable, comparing the results withthose experimentally obtained on a cable composed of four straight stackedtapes. The results show the ability of the model to simulate twisted conductorsand constitutes a first step toward the simulation of TSTC in high-field magnetapplications. The presented modeling approach is not restricted to the TSTCgeometry, but may be used for any cable configuration with periodicaltranslational symmetry.
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