Critical Current Test Facilities for LHC Superconducting NbTi Cable Strands

The Rutherford-type superconducting Cu/NbTi cables of the LHC accelerator are currently mass-produced by a few industrial firms. As a part of the acceptance tests, the critical current of superconducting multifilamentary wires is systematically measured on virgin strands to qualify the wires and on extracted strands to qualify the cables. For this purpose, four test stations are in operation at CERN to measure the critical current of strands at both 4.2 K and 1.9 K in magnetic fields in the 6-11 T range. The measurement setup and procedures of these facilities are reported in this article. The quality of the critical current test is guaranteed by supervising the SPC (Statistical Process Control) charts of a reference sample. The measurement repeatability and reproducibility of the stations are found to be excellent. Moreover, the measured critical current of a strand is found to be almost independent of the test station in which the measurement is performed

Status of the LHC Superconducting Cable Mass Production

Six contracts have been placed with industrial companies for the production of 1200 tons of the superconducting (SC) cables needed for the main dipoles and quadrupoles of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In addition, two contracts have been placed for the supply of 470 tons of NbTi and 26 tons of Nb sheets. The main characteristic of the specification is that it is functional. This means that the physical, mechanical and electrical properties of strands and cables are specified without defining the manufacturing processes. Facilities for the high precision measurements of the wire and cable properties have been implemented at CERN, such as strand and cable critical current, copper to superconductor ratio, interstrand resistance, magnetisation, RRR at 4.2 K and 1.9 K. The production has started showing that the highly demanding specifications can be fulfilled. This paper reviews the organisation of the contracts, the test facilities installed at CERN, the various types of measurements and the results of the main physical properties obtained on the first batches. The status of the deliveries is presented

Competitiveness and communication for effective inoculation byRhizobium, Bradyrhizobium and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi

After a short summary on the ecology and rhizosphere biology of symbiotic bacteria and vesicular-arbuscular (VA) mycorrhiza fungi and their application as microbial inocula, results on competitiveness and communication are summarized. Stress factors such as high temperature, low soil pH, aluminium concentrations and phytoalexins produced by the host plants were studied withRhizobium leguminosarum bv.phaseoli andRhizobium tropici onPhaseolus beans. Quantitative data for competitiveness were obtained by usinggus + (glucoronidase) labelled strains, which produce blue-coloured nodules. ForPhaseolus-nodulating rhizobia, a group specific DNA probe was also developed, which did not hybridize with more than 20 other common soil and rhizosphere bacteria. Results from several laboratories contributing to knowledge of signal exchange and communication in theRhizobium/Bradyrhizobium legume system are summarized in a new scheme, including also defense reactions at the early stages of legume nodule initiation. Stimulating effects of flavonoids on germination and growth of VA mycorrhiza fungi were also found. A constitutive antifungal compound in pea roots, -isoxazolinonyl-alanine, was characterized

Critical current and instability threshold measurement of Nb3_{3} Sn cables for high field accelerator magnets

Rutherford-type cables made of high critical current Nb/sub 3/Sn strands are being used in several laboratories for developing new generation superconducting magnets for present and future accelerators and upgrades. Testing of cable short samples is an important part of these R&D programs and the instability problem found in some short model magnets at Fermilab made these tests even more significant. Fermilab in collaboration with BNL, CERN and LBNL has developed sample holders and sample preparation infrastructure and procedures for testing Nb/sub 3/Sn cable short samples at BNL and CERN test facilities. This paper describes the sample holders, sample preparation and instrumentation, and test results. Several samples made of MJR or PIT strands 1 mm in diameter have been tested. Some samples were unstable (i.e. quenched at low transport currents) at low fields and reached the critical surface at higher fields