Design and Manufacture of the Superconducting Bus-bars for the LHC Main Magnets

The main magnets of the LHC are series-connected electrically in different powering circuits by means of superconducting bus-bars, carrying a maximum current of 13 kA. These superconducting bus-bars consist of a superconducting cable thermally and electrically coupled to a copper profile all along the length. The function of the copper profile is essentially to provide an alternative path for the current in case the superconducting cable loses its superconducting state and returns to normal state because of a transient disturbance or of a normal zone propagation coming from the neighbouring magnets. When a superconducting bus-bar quenches to normal state its temperature must always stay below a safe values of about 100°C while the copper is conducting. When a resistive transition is detected, the protection systems triggers the ramping down of the current from 13000 A to 0. The ramp rate must not exceed a maximum value to avoid the transition of magnets series-connected in the circuit. This paper concerns the design and the manufacture of the high current superconducting bus-bars needed to interconnect the magnetic elements of the main dipoles, the main quadrupoles of the arcs and of the dispersion suppressors of the LHC

Cryogenic and vacuum sectorisation of the LHC arcs

Following the recommendation of the LHC TC of June 20th, 1995 to introduce a separate cryogenic distribution line (QRL), which opened the possibility to have a finer cryogenic and vacuum sectorisation of the LHC machine than the original 8 arcs scheme, a working group was set up to study the implications: technical feasibility, advantages and drawbacks as well as cost of such a sectorisation (DG/DI/LE/dl, 26 July 1995). This report presents the conclusions of the Working Group. In the LHC Conceptual Design Report, ref. CERN/AC/95-05 (LHC), 20 October 1995, the so-called "Yellow Book", a complete cryostat arc (~ 2.9 km) would have to be warmed up in order to replace a defective cryomagnet. Even by coupling the two large refrigerators feeding adjacent arcs at even points to speed up the warm-up and cool down of one arc, the minimum down-time of the machine needed to replace a cryomagnet would be more than a full month (and even 52 days with only one cryoplant). Cryogenic and vacuum sectorisation of an arc into smaller sectors is technically feasible and would allow to reduce the down-times considerably (by one to three weeks with four sectors of 750 m in length, with respectively two or one cryoplants). In addition, sectorisation of the arcs may permit a more flexible quality control and commissioning of the main machine systems, including cold testing of small magnet strings. Sectorisation, described in detail in the following paragraphs, consists essentially of installing several additional cryogenic and vacuum valves as well as some insulation vacuum barriers. Additional cryogenic valves are needed in the return lines of the circuits feeding each half-cell in order to complete the isolation of the cryoline QRL from the machine, allowing intervention (i.e. venting to atmospheric pressure) on machine sectors without affecting the rest of an arc. Secondly, and for the same purpose, special vacuum and cryogenic valves must be installed, at the boundaries of machine sectors, for the circuits not passing through the cryoline QRL. Finally, some additional vacuum barriers must be installed around the magnet cold masses to divide the insulation vacuum of the magnet cryostats into independent sub-sectors, permitting to keep under insulating vacuum the cryogenically floating cold masses, while a sector (or part of it) is warmed up and opened to atmosphere. A reasonable scenario of sectorisation, namely with four 650-750 m long sectors per arc, and each consisting of 3 or 4 insulation vacuum sub-sectors with two to four half-cells, would represent an additional total cost of about 6.6 MCHF for the machine. It is estimated that this capital investment would be paid off by time savings in less than three long unscheduled interventions such as the change of a cryomagnet

Variation in mechanical properties of selected young poplar hybrid crosses

To better understand the variability in mechanical properties caused by genetic differences in hybrid poplars, modulus of elasticity and modulus of rupture in static bending were examined at two 10-year-old clonal trials located at Windsor and St-Ours, southern Quebec, Canada. The materials consisted of three hybrids, Populus deltoides x Populus nigra, Populus trichocarpa x P. deltoides, Populus maximowiczii x Populus balsamifera, and native P. deltoides. Significant differences were observed in mechanical properties among hybrids and P. deltoides. The effects of growth on the mechanical properties were inconsistent and varied considerably by site and by hybrid. Results indicated no uniform trends relating growth rate to either higher or lower modulus of elasticity/modulus of rupture. It appears that selection for strength properties may not uniformly lead to decreased growth production, especially for P. trichocarpa x P. deltoides and P. maximowiczii x P. balsamifera. Copyright © 2008 by the Society of American Foresters

Measurement of Superconducting Busbars Models for the LHC Main Dipole

The LHC main dipoles will be connected in series by superconducting busbars, consisting of a superconducting cable brazed onto a stabilizing copper profile. In case of a quench detection, protection heaters will be activated to drive the magnet to theresistive state. In addition, the magnet will be protected by a bypass diode. In order to limit quench propagation, the excitation current is ramped down at an initial rate of 113 A/s and with a time constant equal to 104 s. When a busbar quenches, its temperature must stay below safe values. Comparative measurements of a hollow and a solid busbar were performed in 1.9 K superfluid helium, 4.2 K liquid helium and 4.2 K gaseous helium during the current ramp down. We describe the experimental set-up and report the results. The development of temperatures, the quench propagation velocities as well as the residual resistance ratio (RRR) were measured. The busbar stabilized by a solid copper profile was found to be the most appropriate choice

Reliable pulsed-operation of 1064 nm wavelength-stabilized diode lasers at high-average-power: boosting fiber lasers from the seed

ABSTRACT Most Pulsed Fiber Lasers (FLs) are built on a Master Oscillator -Power Amplifier (MOPA) architecture, as this configuration has the advantage, among others, of exploiting direct modulation of the diode laser seed (the MO) to reach high repetition rates and high peak-power pulsed operation. To enhance the FL global performance and reliability, high power single-lateral-mode 1064 nm diodes with outstanding long-term behavior are needed. The reliability of these devices at high power has been a challenge for years, due to the high built-in strain in the Quantum Well (QW). In this paper, we present excellent reliability results obtained, in both cw and pulsed conditions, on the latest generation of 1064 nm single-lateral-mode diodes developed at 3S PHOTONICS. Aging tests in cw conditions prove the intrinsic robustness of the diode even at very high junction temperatures, while specific tests in pulsed operation at 45 °C heat-sink temperature, and high repetition rates of several hundred kHz, confirm the stability of the devices in accelerated conditions directly derived from real applications. Both free-running and wavelength stabilized (by means of a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)) packaged devices show very stable performances under pulsed conditions. Reliable operation at higher average power than currently commercially available diode lasers seeds is demonstrated

Palaeoenvironment of Lake Abijata, Ethiopia, during the past 2000 years

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