The Quenching Process In Superconducting Magnets And Their Protection

Abstract

Abstract The transition from the superconductive to the normal state in superconducting magnets and their protection from possible serious consequences of the quenching process have been investigated since the early development of superconducting coils. It has been demonstrated that the electromagnetic and mechanical energies stored in the magnet coils and released during a quench could seriously damage or even destroy them, unless adequate quench protection schemes and devices are implemented. With the recent development of large-size superconducting magnets wound with high jc, and high field superconductors of high energy density, the problem of protecting individual or strings of magnets has grown in complexity. With the emergence of large superconductive magnet systems in particle accelerators and colliders one had to extend the notion of quench protection of a single magnet to a string of interconnected magnets. The quenching process and the quench protection analysis comprise a large number of magnet components, which can be divided into internal and external elements.