Thermal Performance of the Supporting System for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Superconducting Magnets

The LHC collider will be composed of approximately 1700 main ring superconducting magnets cooled to 1.9 K in pressurised superfluid helium and supported within their cryostats on low heat in-leak column-type supports. The precise positioning of the heavy magnets and the stringent thermal budgets imposed by the machine cryogenic system, require a sound thermo-mechanical design of the support system. Each support is composed of a main tubular thin-walled structure in glass-fibre reinforced epoxy resin, with its top part interfaced to the magnet at 1.9 K and its bottom part mounted onto the cryostat vacuum vessel at 293 K. In order to reduce the conduction heat in-leak at 1.9 K, each support mounts two heat intercepts at intermediate locations on the column, both actively cooled by cryogenic lines carrying helium gas at 4.5-10 K and 50-65 K. The need to assess the thermal performance of the supports has lead to setting up a dedicated test set-up for precision heat load measurements on prototype supports. This paper presents the thermal design of the support system of the LHC arc magnets. The results of the thermal tests of a prototype support made in industry are illustrated and discussed. A mathematical model has been set up and refined by the comparison with test results, with the scope of extrapolating the observed thermal performance to different geometrical and material parameters. Finally, the calculated estimate of the heat load budgets of the support system and their contribution to the total cryogenic budget for an LHC arc are presented

Thermal Conductivity of Structural Glass/Fibre Epoxy Composite as a Function of Fibre Orientation

The LHC, the new superconducting particle accelerator presently under construction at CERN, makes use of some 1200 dipole magnets for orbit bending and 500 quadrupole magnets for focusing/defocusing of the circulating high-energy proton beams. Two or three column-type support posts sustain each cryomagnet. The choice of a convenient material for these supports is critical, because of the required high positioning accuracy of the magnets in their cryostats and stringent thermal budget requirements imposed by the LHC cryogenic system. A glass-fibre/epoxy resin composite has been chosen for its good combination of high stiffness and low thermal conductivity over the 2-293 K temperature range. Plies of long glass-fibres are stacked optimally yielding the best mechanical behaviour. However, heat leaks from the supports are influenced by the thermal characteristics of the composite, which in turn depend on the orientation of the fibres. To study the dependence of the thermal conductivity on fibre's orientation, we performed high precision thermal conductivity measurements of various samples of glass-fibre/epoxy resin composite. The results of the thermal conductivity measurements are compared with integral measurements on support posts for LHC cryomagnets and with mixing models

The Insulation Vacuum Barrier for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Magnet Cryostats

The sectorisation of the insulation vacuum of the LHC magnet cryostats, housing the superconducting magnets, which operate in a 1.9 K superfluid helium bath, is achieved by means of vacuum barriers. Each vacuum barrier is a leak-tight austenitic stainless steel thin-wall structure, mainly composed of large diameter (between 0.6 m and 0.9 m) bellows and concentric corrugated cylinders. It is mounted in the Short Straight Section (SSS) [1], between the magnet helium enclosure and the vacuum vessel. This paper presents the design of the vacuum barrier, concentrating mostly on its expected thermal performance, to fulfil the tight LHC heat in-leak budgets. Pressure and leak test results, confirming the mechanical design of two prototypes manufactured in industry, and the preparation of one of these vacuum barriers for cryogenic testing in an SSS prototype, are also mentioned

293 K - 1.9 K supporting systems for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryo-magnets

The LHC machine will incorporate some 2000 main ring super-conducting magnets cooled at 1.9 K by super-fluid pressurized helium, mainly 15m-long dipoles with their cryostats and 6m-long quadrupoles housed in the Short Straight Section (SSS) units. This paper presents the design of the support system of the LHC arc cryo-magnets between 1.9 K at the cold mass and 293 K at the cryostat vacuum vessel. The stringent positioning precision for magnet alignment and the high thermal performance for cryogenic efficiency are the main conflicting requirements, which have lead to a trade-off design. The systems retained for LHC are based on column-type supports positioned in the vertical plane of the magnets inside the cryostats. An ad-hoc design has been achieved both for cryo-dipoles and SSS. Each column is composed of a main tubular thin-walled structure in composite material (glass-fibre/epoxy resin, for its low thermal conductivity properties), interfaced to both magnet and cryostat via stainless steel flanges. The thermal performance of the support is improved by intercepting part of the conduction heat at two intermediate temperature levels (one at 50-75 K and the other at 4.5-20 K). These intercepts, on the composite column, are thermally connected to the helium gas cooled thermal shield and radiation screen of the cryo-magnet. An overview of the design requirements is given, together with an appreciation of the system design. Particular attention is dedicated to the support system of the SSS where the positioning precision of the quadrupole magnet is the most critical

Thermal Performance of the LHC Short Straight Section Cryostat

The LHC Short Straight Section (SSS) cryostat houses and thermally protects in vacuum the cold mass which contains a twin-aperture superconducting quadrupole magnet and superconducting corrector magnets operating at 1.9 K in superfluid helium. In addition to mechanical requirements, the cryostat is designed to minimize the heat in-leak from the ambient temperature to the cold mass. Mechanical components linking the cold mass to the vacuum vessel such as support posts and an insulation vacuum barrier are designed to have minimum heat conductivity with efficient thermalisations for heat interception. Heat in-leak by radiation is reduced by employing multilayer insulation wrapped around the cold mass and an actively cooled aluminium thermal shield. The recent commissioning and operation of two SSS prototypes in the LHC Test String 2 have given a first experimental validation of the thermal performance of the SSS cryostat in nominal operating conditions. Temperature sensors mounted in critical locations provide a temperature mapping which allows a crosscheck with the calculated temperature values and thermal performance. Moreover the measurements allowed a validation of the efficiency of the employed thermalisations. This paper presents the experimental results for the thermal performance of cryostat components and gives a first comparison with the design values

The short straight sections for the LHC

During more than five years a close collaboration between CERN and CEA-Saclay led to the development and construction of two prototype quadrupole magnets and the integration of one of them into the short straight section of the LHC half-cell test string at CERN. In the frame of the special host country contribution to the LHC project this collaboration has been extended to the CNRS laboratory in Orsay and covers besides the quadrupole magnets the complete cold mass assembly (CEA) and the integration into the short straight section cryostat (CNRS). The short straight sections include not only the main lattice quadrupoles with their protection diodes, they also house different corrector magnets and the beam position monitors. Further, they provide the cryogenic feed units for a half-cell with all the magnet interconnections and the jumper connection to the separate cryo-line. The paper will show the general lay-out of these complex units and elaborate the different aspects of their assembly

Design, Manufacturing and Integration of LHC Cryostat Components: an Example of Collaboration between CERN and Industry

The components for the LHC cryostats and interconnections are supplied by European industry. The manufacturing, assembly and testing of these components in accordance with CERN technical specifications require a close collaboration and dedicated approach from the suppliers. This paper presents the different phases of design, manufacturing, testing and integration of four LHC cryostat components supplied by RIAL Vacuum (Parma, Italy), including 112 Insulation Vacuum Barriers (IVB), 482 Cold-mass Extension Tubes (CET), 121 cryostat vacuum vessel Jumper Elbows (JE) and 10800 Interconnection Sleeves (IS). The Quality Assurance Plan, which the four projects have in common, is outlined. The components are all leak-tight thin stainless steel assemblies (<10-8 mbar l/s), most of them operating at cryogenic temperature (2 K), however each having specific requirements. The particularities of each component are presented with respect to manufacturing, assembly and testing. These components are being integrated at CERN into the LHC cryostats and interconnections, thus validating the design and production quality. The major difficulties and improvements are discussed

The New Superfluid Helium Cryostats for the Short Straight Sections of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

The lattice of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) contains 364 Short Straight Section (SSS) units, one in every 53 m long half-cell. An SSS consists of three major assemblies: the standard cryostat section, the cryogenic service module, and the jumper connection. The standard cryostat section of an SSS contains the twin aperture high-gradient superconducting quadrupole and two pairs of superconducting corrector magnets, operating in pressurized helium II at 1.9 K. Components for isolating cryostat insulation vacuum, and the cryogenic supply lines, have to be foreseen. Special emphasis is given to the design changes of the SSS following adoption of an external cryogenic supply line (QRL). A jumper connection connects the SSS to the QRL, linking all the cryogenic tubes necessary for the local full-cell cooling loop [at every second SSS]. The jumper is connected to one end of the standard cryostat section via the cryogenic service module, which also houses beam diagnostics, current feedthroughs, and instrumentation capillaries. The conceptual design fulfilling the tight requirements of magnet alignment precision and cryogenic performance are described. Construction details, aimed at minimizing costs of series manufacturing and assembly, while ensuring the high quality of this complex accelerator component, are given

Special Issue on ‘Modern Imaging Techniques in Fracture and Damage Analyses’: Selected papers from the 21st European Conference of Fracture (ECF 21), held in Catania, Sicily, Italy, on 20–24 June 2016

Editoria

A Modular Design for the 56 Variants of the Short Straight Section in the Arcs of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

The 360 Short Straight Sections (SSS) necessary for the eight arcs of the LHC machine have to fulfil different requirements. Their main function is to house the lattice two-in-one superconducting quadrupole and various correction magnets, all operating at 1.9 K in a superfluid helium bath. The magnetic and powering schemes of the arcs and the fact that the two proton beams alternate between the inner and outer magnet channels impose 24 different combinations of magnet assemblies, all housed in an identical helium enclosure. The cryogenic architecture of the LHC machine is based on cryogenic loops spanning over one half-cell (53 m) for the 4.6-20 K circuit, over a full cell (107 m) for the 1.9 K circuits, up to the full arc (about 2.3 km) for the shield cooling line. This cryogenic layout, when superimposed to the magnetic scheme, further complicated by the cryostat insulation vacuum sectorisation every 2 cells, creates additional assembly variants, up to a total number of 56. The required flexibility in the manufacture and assembly, as well as economic considerations, have led to a modular design for the different SSS components and sub-assemblies. This modularity allows to "specialise" the SSS at the latest possible assembly step of the "just in time" production line. This paper presents the conceptual design considerations to achieve this modularity, the SSS design retained for the series manufacture, and the assembly procedures recently validated on a prototype program at CERN