Testing beam-induced quench levels of LHC superconducting magnets

In the years 2009–2013 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been operated with the top beam energies of 3.5 and 4 TeV per proton (from 2012) instead of the nominal 7 TeV. The currents in the superconducting magnets were reduced accordingly. To date only seventeen beam-induced quenches have occurred;...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review special topics. PRST-AB. Accelerators and beams 2015-06, Vol.18 (6), p.061002, Article 061002
Main Authors: Auchmann, B., Baer, T., Bednarek, M., Bellodi, G., Bracco, C., Bruce, R., Cerutti, F., Chetvertkova, V., Dehning, B., Granieri, P. P., Hofle, W., Holzer, E. B., Lechner, A., Nebot Del Busto, E., Priebe, A., Redaelli, S., Salvachua, B., Sapinski, M., Schmidt, R., Shetty, N., Skordis, E., Solfaroli, M., Steckert, J., Valuch, D., Verweij, A., Wenninger, J., Wollmann, D., Zerlauth, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beams (radiation)
Coils
Internal energy
Large Hadron Collider
Shutdowns
Superconducting magnets
Superconducting supercolliders
Superconductivity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In the years 2009–2013 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been operated with the top beam energies of 3.5 and 4 TeV per proton (from 2012) instead of the nominal 7 TeV. The currents in the superconducting magnets were reduced accordingly. To date only seventeen beam-induced quenches have occurred; eight of them during specially designed quench tests, the others during injection. There has not been a single beam-induced quench during normal collider operation with stored beam. The conditions, however, are expected to become much more challenging after the long LHC shutdown. The magnets will be operating at near nominal currents, and in the presence of high energy and high intensity beams with a stored energy of up to 362 MJ per beam. In this paper we summarize our efforts to understand the quench levels of LHC superconducting magnets. We describe beam-loss events and dedicated experiments with beam, as well as the simulation methods used to reproduce the observable signals. The simulated energy deposition in the coils is compared to the quench levels predicted by electrothermal models, thus allowing one to validate and improve the models which are used to set beam-dump thresholds on beam-loss monitors for run 2.
ISSN:1098-4402
1098-4402
2469-9888
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.18.061002