Numerical and experimental study on critical current of quasi-isotropic superconducting strand stacked by REBCO and copper tapes with different stacking patterns

•This quasi-isotropic superconducting strand could be applied to high-energy physical magnets or fusion magnets.•This superconducting strand shows quasi-isotropy characteristics in an external magnetic field and also has the advantage of high current density.•According to different transmission requirements, the critical current can be adjusted by stacking copper tapes or copper former of different thicknesses. At the same time, adding copper tapes can improve the thermal stability of superconducting strand.•The effect of thickness of copper tape on critical current for strands stacking REBCO tapes outside and copper tapes inside and stacking REBCO tapes outside on a copper former are studied.•The influence of different stacking methods of copper tapes and superconducting tapes on the critical current was studied.