Juan Garcia Perez

The 16 T Dipole Development Program for FCC

A key challenge for a future circular collider (FCC) with centre-of-mass energy of 100 TeV and a circumference in the range of 100 km is the development of high-field superconducting accelerator magnets, capable of providing a 16 T dipolar field of accelerator quality in a 50 mm aperture. This paper summarizes the strategy and actions being undertaken in the framework of the FCC 16 T Magnet Technology Program and the Work Package 5 of the EuroCirCol.

A Fast Digital Integrator for Magnetic Field Measurements at Cern

A self-calibrating digital instrument for flux measurements on magnets for accelerators used in basic research on subnuclear particles is proposed. The instrument acquires voltage arising from rotating coils transducers with a theoretical resolution of 10 ppt and a maximum sampling frequency of 800 kS/s. Then, samples are integrated on-line and suitably processed in order to improve time resolution and flux accuracy. This allows the limits of state-of-the-art digital fluximeters, related mainly to new-generation rotating coils, with trigger rate of 20 kHz and coils speed of 10 rps, to be overcome. The instrument has been prototyped at magnetic measurement and testing (MTM) group of European Laboratory for Nuclear Research (CERN), under a framework of cooperation with the University of Sannio. Details on hardware and firmware conception, as well as on experimental results of the instrument principle validation, and of the preliminary metrological characterization of the prototype, are provided

Test of a NbTi Superconducting Quadrupole Magnet Based on Alternating Helical Windings

It has been shown that by superposing two solenoid-like thin windings, that are oppositely skewed (tilted) with respect to the bore axis, the combined current density on the surface is cos(thetas) -like and the resulting magnetic field in the bore is a pure dipole field. Following a previous test of such a superconducting dipole magnet, a quadrupole magnet was designed and built using similar principles. This paper describes the design, construction and test of a 75 mm bore 600 mm long superconducting quadrupole made with NbTi wire. The simplicity of the design, void of typical wedges, end-spacers and coil assembly, is especially suitable for future high field insert coils using Nb3Sn as well as HTS wires. The 3 mm thick coil reached 46 T/m but did not achieve its current plateau.

Development of a displacement sensor for the CERN-LHC superconducting cryodipoles

One of the main challenges of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a new particle accelerator currently under construction at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, resides in the design and production of the superconducting dipoles used to steer the particles around a 27 km underground tunnel. These so-called cryodipoles consist of an evacuated cryostat and a cold mass containing the particle tubes and the superconducting dipole magnet. The latter is cooled by superfluid helium at 1.9 K. The particle beams must be centred in the dipole magnetic field with a sub-millimetre accuracy. This requires that the relative displacements between the cryostat and the cold mass must be monitored with great accuracy. Because of the extreme environmental conditions (the displacement measurements must be made in vacuum and between two points at a temperature difference of about 300 degrees) no adequate existing monitoring system was found for this application. It was therefore decided to develop an optical sensor based on low-coherence double interferometry, which measures with micrometer precision the distance between a mirror welded to the dipole cold mass and an optical head attached in the inner wall of the cryostat. This contribution describes the development of this novel sensor and the first measurements performed on the LHC cryodipoles.

Estimation of Mechanical Vibrations of the LHC Fast Magnetic Measurement System

Current installation of the large hadron collider (LHC) particle accelerator at CERN has required the use of a harmonic coil magnetic measurement system to quantify the magnetic field harmonic quality of the superconducting, twin aperture LHC dipoles. Current and future needs for measuring fast changing magnetic fields necessitates the use of a rotating unit (RU) and associated electronics to drive this long shaft with increased speed and measurement bandwidth. Therefore, the fast magnetic measurement equipment (FAME) project has been launched to deliver such a system. A primary obstacle to achieving the goals of the FAME project is the possibility of amplifying mechanical vibrations due to increased speeds. This paper presents the methodology and results of an experimental investigation conducted to estimate mechanical vibrations of the long shaft within a cold-bore mounted anti-cryostat at various rotational speeds using magnetic measurements.

A Device to Measure Magnetic and Mechanical Axis of Superconducting Magnets for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

The LHC will be composed of 1232 horizontally curved, 15 meter long, cryodipoles and 474 short straight sections, being assembled by different manufacturers. Magnetic axis alignment is an essential part of the magnets quality for two reasons: first, to be able to install correctly the magnets in the tunnel w.r.t. the reference beam orbit; secondly, to assess the relative alignment between the magnets composing the assembly, i.e. spool pieces for the dipoles and larger correctors for the SSS. A system called AC mole is being used extensively to measure magnetic and geometric axis, as well as roll angle, for every single magnet composing all the SSS. This paper describes its performance, its first years of operation, as well as the improvements that have made it very powerful, versatile and easy to use

Compensation of third-harmonic field error in LHC main dipole magnets

One of the main requirements for the operations of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is a suitable correction of multipole errors in magnetic field. The feed-forward control of the LHC is based on the Field Description for the LHC (FiDel), capable of forecasting the magnets behavior in order to generate adequate current ramps for main and corrector magnets. Magnetic measurements campaigns aimed at validating the model underlying FiDel highlighted the need for improving the harmonic compensation of the third-harmonic (b3) component of the main LHC dipoles. In this paper, the results of a new measurement campaign for b3 harmonic compensation, carried out through the new Fast Acquisition Measurement Equipment (FAME), are reported. In particular, the mechanism and the measurement procedure of the compensation, as well as the new perspectives opened by preliminary experimental results, are illustrated.

A method to determine the flexural rigidity of the main dipole for the Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) superconducting dipole cold mass is a cylindrical structure 15 m long, made of a shrinking cylinder which contains iron laminations and collared coils. This structure, weighing about 28 tons, is horizontally bent by 5 mrad. Its shape should be preserved from the assembly phase to the operational condition at cryogenic temperature. Hence, an accurate comprehension of the mechanical behavior of the cold mass is required. In particular, the flexural rigidity in both horizontal and vertical directions represents one of the foremost properties. To determine the flexural rigidity, deformations of the cold mass induced by the self weight have been measured and compared with the predictions of an analytical structural model. Particular care has been taken in reducing the experimental error by an appropriate fitting procedure.

Magnetic field measurements on small magnets by vibrating wire systems

A new method based on vibrating wire to measure field multipole is presented. The magnet multipoles are assessed by positioning the wire in different points on a circle inside the magnet aperture and measuring the amplitude of wire vibrations. An analytical model relates vibration amplitudes to multipoles. Results of simulation tests aimed at analyzing the model performance are reported. Preliminary experimental validation results on small permanent magnets for the new linear accelerator Linac4 at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) are shown.

Stability of the Horizontal Curvature of the LHC Cryodipoles During Cold Tests

The LHC will be composed of 1232 horizontally curved, 15 meter long, superconducting dipole magnets cooled at 1.9 K. They are supported within their vacuum vessel by three Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy (GFRE) support posts. Each cryodipole is individually cold tested at CERN before its installation and interconnection in the LHC 27 km-circumference tunnel. As the magnet geometry under cryogenic operation is extremely important for the LHC machine aperture, a new method has been developed at CERN in order to monitor the magnet curvature change between warm and cold states. It enabled us to conclude that there is no permanent horizontal curvature change of the LHC dipole magnet between warm and cold states, although a systematic horizontal transient deformation during cool-down was detected. This deformation generates loads in the dipole supporting system; further investigation permitted us to infer this behavior to the asymmetric thermal contraction of the rigid magnet thermal shield during cool-down. Controlling the helium flow rate in the thermal shield of the cryomagnet enabled us to reduce the maximal deformation by a factor of approximately two, thus increasing significantly the mechanical safety margin of the supporting system during the CERN cold tests