P. Vedrine

Overview and status of the Next European Dipole Joint Research Activity

The Next European Dipole (NED) Joint Research Activity was launched on 1 January 2004 to promote the development of high-performance Nb3Sn conductors in collaboration with European industry (aiming at a non-copper critical current density of 1500 A mm−2 at 4.2 K and 15 T) and to assess the suitability of Nb3Sn technology to the next generation of accelerator magnets (aiming at an aperture of 88 mm and a conductor peak field of ~15 T). It is part of the Coordinated Accelerator Research in Europe (CARE) project, which involves eight collaborators, and is half-funded by the European Union. After briefly recalling the Activity organization, we report the main progress achieved over the last year, which includes: the manufacturing of a double-bath He II cryostat for heat transfer measurements through Nb3Sn conductor insulation, detailed quench computations for various NED-like magnet configurations, the award of two industrial subcontracts for Nb3Sn conductor development, the first results of a cross-calibration programme of test facilities for Nb3Sn wire characterization, detailed investigations of the mechanical properties of heavily cold-drawn Cu/Nb/Sn composite wires, and the preliminary assessment of a new insulation system based on polyimide-sized glass fibre tapes. Last, we briefly review the efforts of an ongoing Working Group on magnet design and optimization.

Iseult/INUMAC Whole Body 11.7 T MRI Magnet Status

A Whole Body 11.7 T MRI Magnet is presently being developed at the CEA Saclay for the Iseult/Inumac project, a French-German initiative focused on very-high-magnetic-field molecular imaging to improve sensitivity, spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution for preclinical and/or clinical MR systems. The magnet will be installed at the Neurospin center, Saclay, in 2012. This actively shielded magnet system, with a stored energy of 338 MJ and an inductance of 308 H, has external dimensions of 5 m in diameter and 5.2 m in length. The magnet will operate at a homogeneous field level of 11.75 T within a 90 cm warm bore and at a current of 1483 A. The technological choice for the cryostable winding is a double pancake structure, using NbTi conductors cooled with a pressurized bath of Helium II at 1.8 K. In April 2009, the project passed an important milestone with the publication of the Technical Design Report, which defines the engineering parameters, design of the magnet, and establishes its engineering feasibility. In the paper, the status of the 11.7 T magnet is reviewed and the future developments are presented.

Construction of the new prototype of main quadrupole cold masses for the arc short straight sections of LHC

Each cold mass of the short straight sections in the eight LHC arcs will contain a 3.25 m long twin aperture quadrupole of a nominal gradient of 223 T/m. This magnet will be aligned in a 5.3 m long inertia tube together with auxiliary magnets on each end. On the quadrupole connection end either a pair of 38 cm long octupole or trim quadrupole magnets will be mounted, on the other end there will be combined sextupole-dipole correctors with a yoke length of 1.26 m. The powering of the main quadrupoles will be assured by two pairs of copper stabilized superconducting bus-bars placed inside the cold mass next to the bus-bars for the main dipole magnets. Each of the two quadrupole apertures will be connected to its quench protection diode. The construction of three prototypes has been entrusted to the CEA/Saclay laboratory, in the frame of the special French contribution to the LHC project. The first cold mass prototype has been completed and warm-measured for its multipole content at CEA. The second cold mass is presently under completion. The paper reviews the experience with the development of the quadrupole coils and cold mass construction and gives the results of the first warm magnetic measurements. An outlook for the series manufacture of the 400 are quadrupole magnets and their cold masses for the LHC machine completes the report.

Status of the Next European Dipole (NED) activity of the Collaborated Accelerator Research in Europe (CARE) project

Plans for LHC upgrade and for the final focalization of linear colliders call for large aperture and/or high-performance dipole and quadrupole magnets that may be beyond the reach of conventional NbTi magnet technology. The Next European Dipole (NED) activity was launched on January 1st, 2004 to promote the development of high-performance, Nb/sub 3/Sn wires in collaboration with European industry (aiming at a noncopper critical current density of 1500 A/mm/sup 2/ at 4.2 K and 15 T) and to assess the suitability of Nb/sub 3/Sn technology to the next generation of accelerator magnets (aiming at an aperture of 88 mm and a conductor peak field of 15 T). It is integrated within the Collaborated Accelerator Research in Europe (CARE) project, involves seven collaborators, and is partly funded by the European Union. We present here an overview of the NED activity and we report on the status of the various work packages it encompasses.

On-Surface Test of the ATLAS Barrel Toroid Coils: Overview

The Barrel Toroid (BT) provides the magnetic field for the muon detectors in the ATLAS experiment at CERN. The Toroid is built up from eight superconducting coils. Each coil consists of two 25 m times 5 m racetrack shape double pancakes impregnated and pre-stressed inside an aluminum coil casing. The 42-tons cold mass is cooled by forced-flow liquid helium circulating in aluminum pipes glued to its surface. The coils are tested on surface prior to their underground installation. The test program has started in September 2004 and finished in June 2005. This paper describes the test set up and various commissioning tests performed at the ATLAS Magnet Test Facility. It includes the aspects of test preparation, vacuum pumping, leak testing, cooling down, powering and warming up. The 8 coils have passed the tests successfully and have been assembled into the Toroid in the ATLAS cavern. The testing completes the production of the so far largest racetrack coils in the world

Manufacturing and integration progress of the ATLAS barrel toroid magnet at CERN

ATLAS is one of the two experiments dedicated the search of the Higgs boson, which will be installed on the LHC ring at CERN in 2006. The ATLAS barrel toroid air-core magnet (BT) is 20 m in diameter and consists of 8 superconducting coils, each one 25 m long and 5 m wide. After several years of technological development, the major concepts have been proved in 1999/2000 during the construction of the B0 prototype; a technological model for BT. The delivery by several European industrial companies of all the major components for BT is nearly finished. The eight BT coils are now being integrated at CERN. The paper presents a general overview of the component manufacturing and integration progress. A special emphasis is put on the major component delivery (conductor, double pancake windings, aluminum coil casing and cryostat) together with a description of the two phases of the integration process: integration of the windings into their coil casings and integration of the cold mass into the vacuum vessel. The integration of the windings in their coil casings will be completed in October 2003. The closure of the first cryostat is planned for the end of the year. The start of the first cold test and the assembly in the cavern is foreseen for the beginning of 2004.

Cold Mass Integration of the ATLAS Barrel Toroid Magnets at CERN

The ATLAS Barrel Toroid, part of the ATLAS Detector built at CERN, is comprised of 8 coils symmetrically placed around the LHC beam axis. The coil dimensions are 25 m length, 5 m width and 0.4 m thickness. Each coil cold mass consists of 2 double pancakes of aluminum stabilized NbTi conductor held in an aluminum alloy casing. Because the magnet is conduction cooled a good bonding between the superconducting winding and the coil casing is a basic requirement. Due to the high load level induced by the Lorentz forces on the double pancakes, a pre-stressing technique has been developed for the assembling of the double pancake windings in the coil casing. This prestressing technique uses inflatable bladders made of extruded aluminum tubes filled with glass microballs and epoxy resin then cured under pressure. The paper describes the design of the system as well as the problems occurred during the assembling of the 8 superconducting ATLAS coils and the ATLAS B0 prototype coil, and the behavior of the Barrel Toroid coils with respect to this prestress during the cold tests

Suspension System of the Barrel Toroid Cold Mass

The ATLAS Barrel Toroid consists of 8 racetrack coils symmetrically placed around the LHC beam axis. The coil dimensions are 25-m of length, 5-m of width and 1-m of thickness. Each cold mass is held in its cryostat by different types of supports. The paper describes the design, the tests and the behavior of each element during on surface test of individual coils

ATLAS Barrel Toroid Warm Structure Design and Manufacturing

The ATLAS barrel toroid magnet is a large air-core toroid that provides the magnetic field needed for the ATLAS muon spectrometer. The barrel toroid structure, named warm structure, holds the eight superconducting coils evenly positioned around the beam axis with an outer diameter of 20 m. The warm structure supports not only the coils but also muon detectors, services and access for the ATLAS experiment. The warm structure withstands about 1400 tons of weight and strong magnetic forces. Physics performance of the muon detectors, and the fact that many design aspects of the toroid and of other related sub-system of the ATLAS experiment are intertwined, impose stringent requirements on the warm structure design. Extensive finite element analyses have been carried out to achieve the final design. Manufacturing feasibilities and facilities have been taken into account. This paper gives an overview on the design and manufacturing of the ATLAS Barrel Toroid Warm Structure

On-Surface Tests of the ATLAS Barrel Toroid Coils: Acceptance Criteria and Results

Each superconducting coil of the ATLAS Barrel Toroid has to pass the commissioning tests on surface before the installation in the underground cavern for the ATLAS Experiment at CERN. Particular acceptance criteria have been developed to characterize the individual coils during the on-surface testing. Based on these criteria and the limited time of the test, a compressed test program was proposed and realized. In only a few cases some additional tests were required to justify the coil performance and acceptance. In this paper the analysis of the test results is presented and discussed with respect to the acceptance criteria. Some differences in the parameters found between the identical coils are analyzed in relation to coil production features