The reduction of the critical current in Nb3Sn cables under transverse loads

The degradation of the critical current of impregnated Rutherford type Nb3Sn cables was investigated as a function of the applied transverse load and magnetic field. The cable is made of modified jelly-roll-type strand material and has a keystone angle of 1.0°. The voltage-current characteristics were determined for the magnetic field ranging from 2 to 11 T and transverse pressure up to 250 MPa on the cable surface. It was found that the 48-strand cable, made of strands with six elements in the matrix, showed a larger critical current degradation than the 26-strand cable with 36 elements per strand. The global degradation of the 48-strand cable was 63% at 150 MPa, and 40% at 150 MPa for the 26-strand cable. Microanalysis of the cross-section before and after compression is presented, showing significant permanent damage to the superconducting strands

An Experimental 11.5 T Nb3Sn LHC Type of Dipole Magnet

As part of the magnet development program for the LHC an experimental 1 m long 11.5 T single aperture Nb3Sn dipole magnet has been designed and is now under construction. The design is focused on full utilisation of the high current density in the powder tube Nb3Sn. A new field optimisation has led to a different winding layout and cable sizes as compared to the reference LHC design. Another important feature of the design is the implementation of a shrink fit ring collar system. An extensive study of the critical current of the Nb3Sn cables as a function of the transverse stress on the cables shows a permanent degradation by the cabling process of about 20%, still leaving a safety margin at the operation field of 11.5 T of 15%. A revised glass/mica glass insulation system is applied which improves the thermal conductivity of the windings as well as the impregnation process considerably. This paper describes various design and production details of the magnet system as well as component test

Modeling heat transfer from quench protection heaters to superconducting cables in Nb3Sn magnets

We use a recently developed quench protection heater modeling tool for an analysis of heater delays in superconducting high-field Nb3Sn accelerator magnets. The results suggest that the calculated delays are consistent with experimental data, and show how the heater delay depends on the main heater design parameters.Comment: 8 pages, Contribution to WAMSDO 2013: Workshop on Accelerator Magnet, Superconductor, Design and Optimization; 15 - 16 Jan 2013, CERN, Geneva, Switzerlan

Influence of a mutltistrand cable design on its quench development process and stability

The quench development process was studied with two six-strand superconducting cable samples with insulated strands and different cabling design. One sample was the traditional ‘six-around-one’ cable, the other was of the ‘round-braid’ type. Quench was initiated by a heating pulse applied to a single strand. A significant difference was observed in the current redistribution among strands due to the different cabling designs. It has an important influence on the stability of multistrand cables. A new concept of the ‘single-strand stability’ was proposed and corresponding stability criteria were offered. A possible way to improve cable stability by using special cabling design is discussed

The influence of the Al stabilizer layer thickness on the normal zone propagation velocity in high current superconductors

The stability of high-current superconductors is challenging in the design of superconducting magnets. When the stability requirements are fulfilled, the protection against a quench must still be considered. A main factor in the design of quench protection systems is the resistance growth rate in the magnet following a quench. The usual method for determining the resistance growth in impregnated coils is to calculate the longitudinal velocity with which the normal zone propagates in the conductor along the coil windings. Here, we present a 2D numerical model for predicting the normal zone propagation velocity in Al stabilized Rutherford NbTi cables with large cross section. By solving two coupled differential equations under adiabatic conditions, the model takes into account the thermal diffusion and the current redistribution process following a quench. Both the temperature and magnetic field dependencies of the superconductor and the metal cladding materials properties are included. Unlike common normal zone propagation analyses, we study the influence of the thickness of the cladding on the propagation velocity for varying operating current and magnetic field. To assist in the comprehension of the numerical results, we also introduce an analytical formula for the longitudinal normal zone propagation. The analysis distinguishes between low-current and high-current regimes of normal zone propagation, depending on the ratio between the characteristic times of thermal and magnetic diffusion. We show that above a certain thickness, the cladding acts as a heat sink with a limited contribution to the acceleration of the propagation velocity with respect to the cladding geometry. Both numerical and analytical results show good agreement with experimental data.Comment: To be published in Physics Procedia (ICEC 25 conference special issue

Development of an experimental 10 T Nb3Sn dipole magnet for the CERN LHC

An experimental 1-m long twill aperture dipole magnet developed using a high-current Nb3Sn conductor in order to attain a magnetic field well beyond 10 T at 4.2 K is described. The emphasis in this Nb3Sn project is on the highest possible field within the known Large Hadron Collider (LHC) twin-aperture configuration. A design target of 11.5 T was chosen

Test Results of a 1.2 kg/s Centrifugal Liquid Helium Pump for the ATLAS Superconducting Toroid Magnet System

The toroid superconducting magnet of ATLAS-LHC experiment at CERN will be indirectly cooled by means of forced flow of liquid helium at about 4.5 K. A centrifugal pump will be used, providing a mass flow of 1.2 kg/s and a differential pressure of 40 kPa (ca. 400 mbar) at about 4300 rpm. Two pumps are foreseen, one for redundancy, in order to feed in parallel the cooling circuits of the Barrel and the two End-Caps toroid magnets. The paper describes the tests carried out at CERN to measure the characteristic curves, i.e. the head versus the mass flow at different rotational speeds, as well as the pump total efficiency. The pump is of the "fullemission" type, i.e. with curved blades and it is equipped with an exchangeable inducer. A dedicated pump test facility has been constructed at CERN, which includes a Coriolis-type liquid helium mass flow meter. This facility is connected to the helium refrigerator used for the tests at CERN of the racetrack magnets of the Barrel and of the End-Cap toroids

Enrichment of the HR 8799 planets by minor bodies and dust

In the Solar System, minor bodies and dust deliver various materials to planetary surfaces. Several exoplanetary systems are known to host inner and outer belts, analogues of the main asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. We study the possibility that exominor bodies and exodust deliver volatiles and refractories to the exoplanets in the system HR8799 by performing N-body simulations. The model consists of the host star, four giant planets (HR8799 e, d, c, and b), 650000 test particles representing the inner belt, and 1450000 test particles representing the outer belt. Moreover we modelled dust populations that originate from both belts. Within a million years, the two belts evolve towards the expected dynamical structure (also derived in other works), where mean-motion resonances with the planets carve the analogues of Kirkwood gaps. We find that, after this point, the planets suffer impacts by objects from the inner and outer belt at rates that are essentially constant with time, while dust populations do not contribute significantly to the delivery process. We convert the impact rates to volatile and refractory delivery rates using our best estimates of the total mass contained in the belts and their volatile and refractory content. Over their lifetime, the four giant planets receive between $10^{-4}$ and 10^{-3}M_\bigoplus of material from both belts. The total amount of delivered volatiles and refractories, {5\times10^{-3}\textrm{M}_\bigoplus}, is small compared to the total mass of the planets, 11\times10^{3}\textrm{M}_\bigoplus. However, if the planets were formed to be volatile-rich, their exogenous enrichment in refractory material may well be significant and observable, for example with JWST-MIRI. If terrestrial planets exist within the snow line of the system, volatile delivery would be an important astrobiological mechanism and may be observable as atmospheric trace gases.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy&Astrophysic