Electro-thermal FEM simulations of the 13 kA LHC joints

The interconnections between the superconducting main dipole and main quadrupole magnets are made of soldered joints of two superconducting NbaTi cables embedded in a copper busbar stabilizer. The primary cause of the September 2008 incident in the LHC was a defect in an interconnection between two...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cryogenics (Guildford) 2013, Vol.53, p.119-127
Main Authors: MOLNAR, D, VERWEIJ, A. P, BIELERT, E. R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Busbars
Bypasses
Computer simulation
Copper
Cryogenics
Design engineering
Dipoles
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Exact sciences and technology
Finite element method
Interconnections
Large Hadron Collider
Magnets
Mathematical models
Refrigerating engineering. Cryogenics. Food conservation
Shunts
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Summary:The interconnections between the superconducting main dipole and main quadrupole magnets are made of soldered joints of two superconducting NbaTi cables embedded in a copper busbar stabilizer. The primary cause of the September 2008 incident in the LHC was a defect in an interconnection between two dipole magnets. Analyses of the incident show that possibly more defects might be present in the 13 kA circuits, which can lead to unprotected resistive transitions. To avoid the reoccurrence of such an event, thorough experimental and numerical investigations have taken place to determine the safe operating conditions of the LHC. However to show measured curves is beyond the scope of this article. Furthermore, improvements in the design have been proposed in the form of additional parallel copper pieces, or shunts, which bridge the possible voids in the soldering and offer a bypass for the current in case of a quench.
ISSN:0011-2275
1879-2235
DOI:10.1016/j.cryogenics.2012.03.008