A Novel Idea for Coil Collar Structures in Accelerator Superconducting Magnets

The dipoles for several different machines (LHC, SSC, HERA) were designed using non-magnetic metallic collars to contain the superconducting coils. The coils are of two types, main and floating. This paper describes a structure with combined steel and plastic collars. Since the floating collars do not give an important contribution to the global rigidity of the dipole we propose to suppress them. The plastic collars are just fillers to limit the helium contained in the cold mass. Some data about thermoplastic materials to be possibly used for the collars are given and some estimations of mass and cost of this configuration are made. Finally the results of the tests of a 1-m-long twin aperture dipole with mixed steel-plastic collars are shortly described. The replacement of expensive alloys by high performance plastic in non-structural components can be a cost-effective solution in view of future projects where superconducting magnets are involved and contained costs are a key issue

3D FEM Modeling of the Coil Ends of the LHC Main Dipole

A 3D finite element mechanical model has been developed to simulate the complex geometry of the extremities of the coils for the LHC main dipoles. The final aim is to evaluate the possible impact of coil defects on quench performances. In this paper we describe the first part of the work that has been carried out. This covers an analysis of the contribution of the mechanical properties of the different materials to the rigidity of the coil heads and the experimental validation of the model. For such validation we compared the computed stiffness with the values observed during production measurements in industry. The numerical results are in good agreement with the measured; some discrepancies in the intermediate zone of the end point out also in which direction the modeling should be refined

Statistical Studies of the Robustness of the LHC Main Dipole Mechanical Structure

This paper describes two methods used to study the effect of the tolerances of the components on the structure of the LHC main dipole. The first method, called semi-statistical, is useful for the study of the effect of single different parameters and allows the determination of the acceptable variance of the dimensions of magnet components. The second one, fully statistical, allows the study of the combined effect of many parameters. The use of these two methods allowed to evaluate with good confidence the robustness of two different dipole cross-section designs, featuring austenitic and aluminium alloy collars, respectively

FEM Computations Concerning the Effect of Friction in Two LHC Main Dipole Structures

The mechanical behaviour of a dipole structure is considered when also friction is taken into account, studying its effect on different components and in different conditions. In particular the difference in behavior between a structure with aluminium collars and one with austenitic steel ones was studied

First Experience in the Mass Production of Components for the LHC Dipoles

This paper reports on the manufacturing features and difficulties experienced for the preliminary mass production of the main mechanical components of the dipole cold mass. The production of about 600 km of superconducting coil copper wedges, 5'000 coil layer jump spacers and boxes, 12'500'000 austenitic steel collars and 5'800'000 low-carbon yoke laminations is spread over 4 European countries and involves 6 manufactory firms. The general technical requirements for the manufacturing process as well as the imposed production checks and quality controls are reviewed. An overview of the preliminary results is presented with an outlook towards the analysis and statistical which are in a process to be implemented for the follow-up of the mass production

Field quality in the ends of the Large Hadron Collider main dipole: Measurements and correlation to industrial assembly procedures

Magnetic field measurements are an important tool to monitor the LHC main dipole production. In this paper we analyse the data relative to a few tens of collared coils produced for the pre-series dipoles. Strong systematic differences between field at the magnet extremities are observed. Moreover, three different families of coil ends corresponding to the different coil manufacturers can be singled out. A 3D model of the coil ends is used to understand these differences in terms of the assembly parameters and the industrial procedures. We analyse the production trends in order to characterize the geometric parameters and the critical components for the field quality. The field components in the dipole ends are finally compared to the beam dynamics budget allowed for the whole dipole

Field-shape imperfections of the CERN-LHC dipole arising from mechanical deformations and component tolerances

The stability of the geometry of the superconducting coils is essential to the field homogeneity of the LHC dipole magnets. Mechanical stresses during coil assembly, thermal stresses during cool-down and electromagnetic stresses during operation are the source of deformations of the coil geometry. Additional sources of field-shape errors are the dimensional tolerances of the magnet components and of the manufacturing and assembly tooling. To provide a realistic evaluation of the field-shape imperfections of the LHC dipoles arising from the above effects, appropriate finite-element computations were carried out to model the dipole cross-section in presence of stresses and a first statistical simulation of the effect of the manufacturing tolerances was performed as well

Mechanical Design of the SMC (Short Model Coil) Dipole Magnet

The Short Model Coil (SMC) working group was set in February 2007 within the Next European Dipole (NED) program, in order to develop a short-scale model of a Nb$_{3}$Sn dipole magnet. The SMC group comprises four laboratories: CERN/TE-MSC group (CH), CEA/IRFU (FR), RAL (UK) and LBNL (US). The SMC magnet was originally conceived to reach a peak field of about 13 T on conductor, using a 2500 A/mm2 Powder-In-Tube (PIT) strand. The aim of this magnet device is to study the degradation of the magnetic properties of the Nb$_{3}$Sn cable, by applying different level of pre-stress. To fully satisfy this purpose, a versatile and easy-to-assemble structure has to be realized. The design of the SMC magnet has been developed from an existing dipole magnet, the SD01, designed, built and tested at LBNL with support from CEA. In this paper we will describe the mechanical optimization of the dipole, starting from a conceptual configuration based on a former magnetic analysis. Two and three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) models have been implemented in ANSYS™ and in CAST3M, aiming at setting the mechanical parameters of the dipole magnet structure, thus fulfilling the design constraints imposed by the materials

Development and Manufacture of the Coil End Spacers of the LHC Pre-series Dipoles

The coil end spacers play an important role in the performance of superconducting coils, as their shape and location determine the mechanical stability of the conductors in the coil ends (and hence the overall coil training performance) and the local field quality. The dipole end spacers are often of a size and a geometry difficult to be industrially series manufactured and measured. Efficiency of the production and related costs are a key issue to achieve the required production rate of the LHC main dipoles at an affordable price. For the latter reasons, a design approach integrating state-of-the-art CAD/CAM optimization techniques allowing to considerably decrease design and machining time was implemented. This paper gives examples and describes the design criteria, the computation methods, the machining and measuring procedures adopted to carry out the pre-series production