  The design of superconducting applications containing windings of
superconducting wires or tapes requires electro-thermal quench modelling. In
this article, we present a reliable numerical method based on a variational
principle and we benchmark it to a conventional finite difference method that
we implemented in C++. As benchmark problem, we consider a racetrack coil made
of REBCO superconducting tape under short circuit, approximated as a DC voltage
that appears at the initial time. Results show that both models agree with each
other and analytical limits. Since both models take screening currents into
account, they are promising for the design of magnets (especially fast-ramp
magnets) and power applications, such as the stator windings of superconducting
motors or generators.
