Quench behavior of a superconducting accelerator magnet

Abstract

Data are presented on the minimum energy required to cause quenches to propagate in an accelerator dipole magnet. The amount of stored energy dissipated into the magnet was measured as a function of dipole excitation current. This in turn determines the maximum coil temperature reached in a given magnet. Quench velocities in the longitudinal direction of the conductor were as high as 11m/sec. The azimuthal velocities or turn to turn velocities were found to be a function of the number of fiberglass layers of insulation that the quench had to cross and were on the order of a few tens of centimeters/sec. The field shape of a given magnet was found to be unchanged for more than 100 quenches. The coil to coil connection and inter-coil splice resistances were found to be less than a nano-ohm and therefore of little consequence in the cryogenic load considerations. No definitive answers were found on how to decrease the rate of training (130 Gauss/Quench average) required from 4.0T to 5.1T.