accelerating-news-arc.web.cern.ch - HL-LHC

Corrector magnets for HL-LHC

Livia Lapadatescu — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 12:34:07 +0000

Successful tests of canted correctors for HL-LHC
by Panos Charitos (CERN)

The High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC) will extend the discovery potential of the world’s largest accelerator. The upgrade aims to increase its luminosity (rate of collisions) by a factor of five beyond the original design value and the integrated luminosity (total collisions created) by a factor ten.

To reach these goals, a wide range of magnets and new technologies are currently under development. There will be about 100 magnets of 11 new types: four types of main magnets and seven different types of correcting magnets. In addition to the dipole and quadrupole magnets that guide and focus the charged particles, corrector magnets are used to cure imperfections in the magnets and compensate for alignment errors.

Among them, 2-m-long orbit correctors with an ultimate field close to 3 T will be positioned near the insertion region of the ATLAS and CMS experiments. These magnets will be used not only to correct imperfections and alignment, but also to open the crossing angle (between the two beams) avoiding parasitic collisions in the detectors. The team working under the HL-LHC project selected for this intermediate field a “canted cos theta” design with Nb-Ti superconducting wire. This type of winding configuration superposes two concentric and oppositely tilted solenoids, to produce a pure dipole field. “This design has been proposed long time ago, but this will the first time to be used in a high energy physics particle accelerator” – says G. De Rijk, in charge of the magnet laboratory building the corrector.

A 0.5-m-long short model was an essential step to demonstrate the validity of the design and of the technological solutions. It was tested in August 2017 at CERN and successfully reached the ultimate field. The 2-m-long prototype is expected to be tested by the middle of 2018. Even though this design requires about 50% more conductor than usual sector coils, this should be widely compensated by the simplicity of construction. “This magnet has 10 drawings instead of 100, so less components and less tooling to assemble – at the end, a less expensive and a more reliable magnet” explains G. Kirby, in charge of the magnet development.

A 0.5-m-long short model was tested in August at CERN. It was an essential step to demonstrate the validity of the design and of the technological solutions. (Image: Glyn Kirby/CERN)

It is the first time that this design is studied at CERN while Berkley magnet lab and PSI are exploring the applicability of this concept for higher-field magnets based on Nb3Sn. This novel approach has also great potential for intermediate fields required for medical applications - Berkeley National Labs are developing a gantry for cancer therapy.

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HL-LHC

magents

correctors

issue 22

Third HiLumi Industry Day in the UK

Panagiotis Charitos — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 14:38:50 +0000

Third HiLumi Industry Day in the UK
by Isabel Bejar Alonso (CERN) and Panos Charitos (CERN)

Lucio Rossi, HL-LHC Project Coordinator, addresses participants at the HiLumi Industry Day (Image: CERN)

The cost of the upgrade, which will be realised within the regular CERN Budget, is estimated to close to 950 MCHF. The study phase of the upgrade started in 2010 and the commissioning phase will finish in 2026. The upgrade phase is crucial not only to be able to exploit fully the physics potential of the LHC, but also to continue to enable operation of the collider beyond 2025.

More than 1.2 km of the present LHC will be replaced, bringing with it new technical infrastructures - a challenge that can only be accomplished with the strong involvement of European industry. Since 2012, HiLumi, the HL-LHC upgrade project, has organized events to connect CERN with potential industrial partners able to handle the specific technical challenges of HL-LHC.

The third edition of the HiLumi Industry Day took place in Warrington, UK (close to Daresbury Laboratory) in May 2017. The two-day event jointly organised by CERN and STFC gathered some 200 participants from 17 European countries. Key engineers and physicists from CERN and STFC presented the technical challenges of the HL-LHC project to the numerous company delegates attending this event.

The face-to-face meetings arranged with the CERN engineers were also a nice opportunity for these companies to learn more about the key components of the HL-LHC upgrade and the upcoming calls for tender. The business to business meetings enhanced the creation of a community of industries wishing to work for large scientific infrastructures. In total, more than 1,000 face to face meetings were organized. The event finished with a visit to the STFC installations at Daresbury.

Industry will have a crucial role within the HL-LHC Project as the main provider of the technologies and the equipment that are required to successfully achieve the goals of this upgrade.

The HL-LHC project will collaborate with different types of industries and businesses to pursue its goals. Knowledge and technology to be developed during the HL-LHC project will make a lasting impact on society. These events allows scientific institutions to find the right industrial partners within our member states on schedule and for the best added value.

For the first time, ESS, ILL, ESO and SKA procurers also participated in the event, as it provided a great opportunity to discover new potential suppliers and to show the increasing global potential of the science market.

In 2018, HL-LHC will participate in the Big Science Business Forum 2018. In 2019 the event will be mainly focus to technical services.

More information on the event, including the technical presentations, are available on Indico event page, and more information on the HL-LHC industrial challenges can be found at the HL-LHC project website.

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QUACO enters into Phase 2

Jennifer Toes — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 14:33:14 +0000

QUACO enters into Phase 2
by Isabel Bejar Alonso (CERN)

QUACO is a Pre Commercial Procurement (PCP) Project (Grant Agreement 689359) with key scope to procure two pilot 3.8 m quadrupole magnets with 90 mm apertures, an integrated gradient of 440 T with 120 T/m in the transverse plane and finally with an operational temperature of 1.9 K.

On 29 September last year, four companies (Antec, Elytt, Sigmaphi and Tesla) obtained a work order for Phase 1. The main milestone of this phase included:

Conceptual Design Report of the magnet covering the results obtained in Phase 1;
Preliminary 2D and 3D CAD model of the magnet;
Conceptual Design Report of the Tooling including Coil fabrication tooling conceptual design and Magnet assembly tooling conceptual design;
Development and Manufacturing plan including detailed plan for phase 2 engineering design.

Evaluators from CEA, CERN, CIEMAT and NCBJ assessed the work produced and all four tenders satisfactorily completed Phase 1.

Each one of the four contractors explored a different conceptual solution demonstrating the strength of the PCP as a method to develop innovative solutions. The summary of the results can be found on the QUACO project website.

On 12 May 2017 the successful tenderers were invited to submit their offers for Phase 2. After the evaluation of the technical and financial offers three tenderers were awarded on 30th June with a contract to execute Phase 2 of the PCP (Antec, Elytt and Sigmaphi). The main milestone of this phase included

Detailed Magnetic and Mechanic design optimisation
Sensitivity analysis toward fabrication
Detailed 2D and 3D CAD manufacturing drawings of the magnet and subcomponents including instrumentation schematics
Detailed 2D and 3D CAD drawings of the manufacturing tooling
Manufacturing and Inspection Plan (MIP)
Mock-ups

This phase is the engineering phase with the first mock-ups and with the complete technical solutions. The three companies have thirteen months ahead of them to demonstrate their capacity to build the future MQYY prototype. The PCP is a competitive procedure and only two of them will receive a work order for phase 3.

Pre-commercial procurement is a unique and novel procurement method in the field of accelerator components, and QUACO aims to demonstrate its full potential for success in this field.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 PCP programme under Grant Agreement no. 689359

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pre commercial procurement

issue 21

Progress in the interaction region magnets of HL-LHC

Panagiotis Charitos — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 14:06:40 +0000

Progress in the interaction region magnets of HL-LHC
by Ezio Todesco (CERN)

During the past months, significant advancements have been done in the development of the interaction region magnets for HL-LHC.

In KEK, Japan, the short model of the separation dipole D1, that showed insufficient quench performance after the first test, has been disassembled. Significant movements of the coils (up to few mm) were observed in the heads, and a clear evidence of a lack of prestress in the straight part was found. The new assembly took place during winter, and a prestress increase in the straight part of about 35 MPa has been achieved. The magnet was tested in February, reaching nominal current after 2 quenches and ultimate after 5 quenches (see Figure 1). “The magnet performance is now in line with the project requirements – says T. Nakamoto, in charge of the D1 project – we will have a warm-up and cool-down to prove the magnet memory in the next weeks”. The short model design is being updated in some features of the iron yoke, and to account for an unexpected contribution to field quality from the coil heads in the strong regime of saturation. A second model will be built in the second part of 2017, and tested in 2018.

Figure 1: Training of MBXFS1 in KEK: quenches (markers), nominal and ultimate current (solid lines) and short sample limit (dotted line). (Credit: HL-LHC WP3 collaboration)

In the US, the first 4-m-long coil has been tested in a mirror configuration, reaching 85% of short sample limit (see Figure 2). “This is the new world record for coil length in Nb₃Sn accelerator magnets – says G. Ambrosio, in charge of the US contribution for the triplet - and paves the way to the assembly and test of the first 4-m-long quadrupole, to be done in the second part of the year”. At the same time at CERN the first 7.15-m-long dummy coils are being produced to validate the assembly procedures (see Figure 3).

Figure 2: Training of mirror 4-m-long coil in BNL: quenches (markers), 70% and 80% of short sample (solid lines) and short sample limit (dotted line). (Credit: HL-LHC WP3 collaboration)

Figure 3: Winding of the first 7.15-m-long dummy coil of the triplet quadrupole at building 180 (CERN)

Furthermore, in CIEMAT, Madrid, the prototype for the nested orbit correctors is entering the construction phase. The concept of double collaring has been validated on a mechanical model with the final design of the collars and a dummy coil made of aluminum (see Figure 4). This is an important step of the validation of the mechanical concept of this magnet, where a mechanical lock between the horizontal and vertical dipoles is required to control the large torque. In particular, the second collaring of the outer dipole on the inner one is critical. “Both collaring operations were in line with our expectations, and we managed to insert pins without any criticality – said F. Toral from CIEMAT, in charge of the Spanish contribution for the orbit correctors – we saw some asymmetries that need more investigations, but given the complexity of the design, this is a very encouraging first step towards construction”.

Figure 4: Double collaring of the nested corrector in CIEMAT

Finally, in LASA, Milano the activity on the high order corrector prototypes is at full speed. After the successful test of the sextupole, the first decapole coil in a single coil configuration has been tested successfully. The coil reached twice the ultimate current with negligible training, thus proving the assembly procedures and tooling concepts. LASA is working in parallel on two magnets: besides the first decapole coil, eigth octupole coils have been completed and will be assembled in the first prototype, and tested in April.

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HL-LHC project stimulates new collaboration

Panagiotis Charitos — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 13:04:27 +0000

HL-LHC project stimulates new collaboration
by Carsten Welsch (University of Liverpool)

View from the LHC tunnel (Credit: CERN)

A new multi-million-pound project between CERN, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and six other UK institutions has been launched to contribute to the upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva. The world’s highest energy particle collider shall be upgraded to the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) in the 2020s through international collaboration.

The challenges of this project are best tackled with input from the project partners from around the world. Several partnerships have already been established with the HL-LHC project and there is room for more potential partnerships in the future. It has now been announced that the UK will make contributions in four areas across the new HL-LHC-UK project among other contributions from UK universities¹.

The full exploitation of the LHC is the highest priority in the European Strategy for Particle Physics, adopted by the CERN Council and integrated into the ESFRI Roadmap. The full HL-LHC project funding was approved by the CERN Council in June 2016. To extend its discovery potential, the LHC will need a major upgrade around 2025 to increase its luminosity (rate of collisions) by a factor of 10 beyond the original design value (from 300 to 3,000 fb-1). This will enable scientists to look for new, very rare fundamental particles, and to measure known particles such as the Higgs boson with unprecedented accuracy.

Upgrading the LHC calls for technology breakthroughs in areas already under study, and requires about 10 years of research to implement. HL-LHC relies on a number of key innovative technologies, representing exceptional technological challenges. Led by experts from the Cockcroft Institute, the HL-LHC-UK project has now been established to address these challenges.

Within HL-LHC-UK, the partner institutions will perform cutting-edge research and deliver hardware for the LHC upgrade in four areas: 1) proton beam collimation to remove stray halo protons, 2) the development and test of transverse deflecting cavities (“crab cavities”), 3) new methods to diagnose the stored beams including gas jet-based beam profile monitors and, 4) novel beam position monitors, as well as sophisticated cold powering technology needed for the cryogenic systems.

Lucio Rossi, Head of the High-Luminosity LHC project, commented: “In order to make the project a success we have to innovate in many fields, developing cutting-edge technologies for magnets, the optics of the accelerator, superconducting radiofrequency cavities, and superconducting links. We are very excited for the UK to be making key contributions and using their expertise to help deliver this upgrade.”

The HL-LHC-UK project comprises the University of Manchester (Cockcroft Institute), Lancaster University (Cockcroft Institute), the University of Liverpool (Cockcroft Institute), the University of Huddersfield (International Institute of Accelerator Applications), Royal Holloway University of London (John Adams Institute), the University of Southampton and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The spokesperson is Rob Appleby (Manchester) and the project manager is Graeme Burt (Lancaster).

More information about the High Luminosity LHC project, its technology and design as well as the challenges ahead can be found in the recently released open access HiLumi LHC book “The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. The New Machine for Illuminating the Mysteries of the Universe”.

1. UK is currently also contributing with the technology for surface modification of metals in a collaboration between CERN, the University of Dundee and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

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Civil engineering for the High-Luminosity LHC

Livia Lapadatescu — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 08:39:10 +0000

Civil engineering for the High-Luminosity LHC
by Jean Laurent Tavian (CERN), Peter Mattelaer (CERN)

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project at CERN will require large infrastructures and services for the powering and the cooling of the high-field superconducting quadrupole magnets constituting the new inner triplets and of the superconducting RF crab-cavities used for the luminosity levelling. These new LHC accelerator components will be integrated at Point 1 and Point 5 of the LHC accelerator where the two large LHC detectors ATLAS and CMS are located (see Figure 1). These new infrastructures and services consist mainly of power transmission, electrical distribution, cooling, ventilation, cryogenics, power converters for superconducting magnets and inductive output tubes for superconducting RF cavities. To house all these new infrastructures and services, civil engineering structures are required including buildings, shaft, caverns and underground galleries.

Figure 1. Underground civil engineering of LHC (Image credit: CERN)

At ground level, the civil engineering consists of five buildings, technical galleries, access roads, concrete slabs and landscaping (See Figures 2 and 3). Per Point, the total surface corresponds to about 20’000 m², including 3’300 m² of buildings. A cluster of three buildings is located at the head of the shaft and will house the helium refrigerator cold-box (SD building), the water-cooling and ventilation units (SU building) as well as the main electrical distribution for high and low voltage (SE building). Two stand-alone buildings complete the inventory and will house the primary-water cooling towers (SF building) and the warm compressor station of the helium refrigerator (SHM building). Buildings housing noisy equipment (SU, SF, SHM) are built with noise-insulated concrete walls and roofs.

Figure 2. Point 1 ground-level civil engineering work (Image credit: CERN)

Figure 3. Point 5 ground-level civil engineering work (Image credit: CERN)

At underground level, the civil engineering work consist of a shaft, a service cavern, galleries, and vertical cores (See Figure 4). The total volume to be excavated corresponds to about 40’000 m³ per Point. The PM shaft (9.7-m diameter, 80-m height) will house a secured access lift and staircase as well as the services required at underground level. The service cavern (US/UW, 16-m diameter, 45-m long) will house cooling and ventilation units, a cryogenic box, an electrical safe room and electrical transformers. The UR gallery (5.8-m diameter, 300-m long) will house the power converters and electrical feed boxes for the superconducting magnets as well as cryogenic and service distribution. Two transversal UA galleries (6.2-m diameter, 50-m long) will house the RF equipment for the powering and controls of the superconducting crab-cavities. At the end of the UA galleries, evacuation galleries (UPR) are required for personnel emergency exits. Two transversal UL galleries (3-m diameter, 40-m long) will house the superconducting links powering the magnets and cryogenic distribution. Finally, the connection of the HL-LHC underground galleries to the LHC tunnel is made via 16 vertical cores (1-m diameter, 7-m long).

Figure 4. Underground civil-engineering work (Courtesy of LAP consortium)

The definition of the civil engineering for the HL-LHC has started in 2015. First integration studies have been performed in collaboration with the CERN SMB (Site Management and Buildings) Department, the equipment groups and the HL-LHC Project Office. In 2016, the completion of a preliminary study has allowed to issue a call for tender for two civil-engineering consultant contracts, which have been adjudicated in June 2016. These consultants are in charge of the preliminary, tender and construction design of the civil engineering works, as well as of the management of the construction including the defect liability. At Point 1 on the Swiss side, the consultant contract was adjudicated to a consortium, called ORIGIN, constituted of 3 companies: SETEC (FR) the consortium leader, CDS Engineers (CH) and Rocksoil (IT). At Point 5 on the French side, the consultant contract was adjudicated to a consortium, called LAP, constituted of 3 companies: Lombardi (CH) the consortium leader, Artelia (FR) and Pini Swiss (CH). In November 2016, the two consultants have completed the preliminary design phase including cost and construction-schedule estimates for the civil engineering work execution.

In parallel with the preliminary design, CERN, with the help of architects, has prepared the building permit applications which have been submitted to the Swiss and French Authorities in October and November 2016. Between 6 to 9 months will be required to get the building permit authorization, that is compatible with the start of the construction works scheduled by mid-2018. CERN has also performed geotechnical investigation in order to better identify the soil constituents. CERN has placed a contract with an independent engineer (Joint venture of ARUP (UK) and Geoconsult (AT)). This independent engineer will perform peer reviews of the consultant designs and will confirm that these designs have been performed with the appropriate skill, care and diligence in accordance with applicable standards. In addition, an adjudicator panel is constituted with lawyers, architects and civil engineers to resolve disputes in-between all parties.

The next important milestone will be the adjudication in March 2018 of the two contracts (one per Point) for the civil-engineering construction works. The tendering process has started with the issue of a market survey in December 2016 including relevant selection criteria requirements. It will be followed by calls for tenders, which will be sent to the qualified companies by June 2017. The main excavation works, producing harmful vibrations for the LHC accelerator performance, must be performed during the second long-shutdown of the LHC accelerator scheduled in 2019-2020. The completion of the civil-engineering with the hand-over of the last building is scheduled by end-2022. The vertical cores connecting the HL-LHC galleries to the LHC tunnel will be burrowed during the first semester of the third long-shutdown of the LHC accelerator, which is expected to start beginning of 2024.

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New Collaboration Board for HL-LHC

Panagiotis Charitos — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 16:30:12 +0000

New collaboration board for HL-LHC
by Isabel Bejar Alonso (CERN) and Panos Charitos (CERN)

The HL-LHC Collaboration Board [HLCB] is the official forum for information exchange and dialogue between the HL-LHC collaborators, HL-LHC project management and CERN management (Image: CERN)

The first session of the new HL-LHC Collaboration Board took place in Paris on 14th November 2016. The HL-LHC project moves from its initial conceptual design phase into the constructive design phase, which marks the beginning of construction for some HL-LHC components.

Moving into the new phase is reflected not only by the change of the composition of the Collaboration Board, but also in the relations with the institutions working for the HL-LHC.

Lucio Rossi, HL-LHC Project Leader points to the increasing number of Member States that contribute through their universities and research centres. Finland, Poland and Sweden have joined, in addition to a strengthened relationship with the States which were already part of the design study, such as France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

“We are particularly proud of the UK contribution, where not only the number of universities is increasing, but also the domains of competence,” notes Lucio Rossi, HL-LHC Project Leader.

Contributions to HL-LHC are also not limited to Europe. Canada is represented by Triumf laboratory, which is also a new member of the Collaboration Board. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, located in California, joins BNL, LBNL, Fermilab and Old Dominion University (Virginia) in the effort of US contribution. In addition, Asia is represented in the collaboration by Japan, while China may soon join the collaboration.

A new general framework contract based on a multi-party memorandum of understanding (MoU) that allows a more flexible exchange of personnel between partners has been agreed upon. Additional contributions can be added by the laboratories via simple addenda.

Collaboration partners include laboratories and institutes who have either signed directly a HL-LHC collaboration agreement or are part of an overreaching general collaboration agreement, will provide either significant in-kind contributions or studies and personnel for the HL-LHC project.

Institutes that have signed the MoU but do not provide an explicit in-kind contribution to HL-LHC are to be considered observers.

The present HL-LHC Collaboration Board has 21 members and 10 observers and is chaired for the next two years by Robert Appleby from the University of Manchester in the UK.

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HL-LHC

HiLumi

issue 19

A year of successes for HL-LHC

Jennifer Toes — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 14:49:13 +0000

A year of successes for HL-LHC
by Isabel Bejar Alonso (CERN)

180 HL-LHC project members participated to the 6th Annual Meeting in Paris from the 14th-16th November, co-organized with CEA at the “Espace Saint Martin” premises (Image: CERN, HL-LHC collaboration)

2016 has been a very busy year for the Hi-Luminosity team. In March, the HL-LHC was declared as an ESFRI landmark, and in June the project received the formal approval of the CERN Council. Finally, after an international review, the 2^nd HL-LHC Cost and Schedule review took place in October; where a group of international experts scrutinized the status of the project. The reviewers gave very positive feedback and pointed out risks of which the management team were already aware.

On the technical side, it is difficult to determine the three main technical milestones of the project due to the sheer volume of achievements.

For Lucio Rossi, HL-LHC Project Leader, 2016 was the year of the consolidation of the civil engineering and technical infrastructure design. In particular, in 2016 we optimized the so called “double decker” solution, which was selected in summer 2015 as best solution for hosting the technical services that will feed the new insertion regions in a gallery a few meters above the main LHC tunnel.

This definitive design pushed to a re-baselining exercise which aimed to resolve the excess in civil engineering costs that emerged in spring 2016. The results of this exercise were presented and validated at the Cost and Schedule review after being approved by the CERN Executive Committee in August. The results have also been integrated into the latest version of the Technical Design Report (TDR), that will be published soon.

In addition, Lucio Rossi pointed that the HL-LHC technical teams have achieved many things, such as the production of full cross-section models of the HL-LHC’s future quadrupole magnets. The first short model (MQXFS1) of the future quadrupoles was produced by a collaboration between US-LARP and CERN. The magnets (MQXFS1) achieved the ultimate gradient and retained it after a thermal cycle showing an optimal memory. Had the magnet been a prototype rather than a model, would have been qualified for installation.

Furthermore, the SPS testing of the crab cavity cryo-assemblies has also made significant progress. After being considered in a critical state and with challenging planning just one year ago, the schedule is back on track and has been adhered to, without any further delay.

Beyond SPS testing, the industrialization plan for the HL-LHC production was validated by the external reviewers and considered extremely solid.

HL-LHC has had a successful year both in terms of project management and technical milestones. Project members gathered for the 6^th HL-LHC Collaboration meeting held in Paris in November to discuss the past year and look forward to the next steps.

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QUACO companies ready for announcement

Jennifer Toes — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 10:55:07 +0000

QUACO companies ready for announcement
by Isabel Bejar Alonso (CERN) & Panos Charitos (CERN)

The QUACO project logo (Image: CERN)

The four companies that will participate in phase 1 of the QUACO project are expected to be announced on the 29th September 2016. QUACO is a Pre Commercial Procurement (PCP) Project (Grant Agreement 689359) with scope to procure two pilot 3.8 m quadrupole magnets with two 90 mm apertures, an integrated gradient of 440 T with 120 T/m in the transverse plane, and which will have an operational temperature of 1.9 K. The magnets will be installed in the matching sections.

PCP is the European Union’s Horizon 2020 COFUND instrument for purchasing R&D services for the development of innovative products, services or processes. One of the biggest advantages of PCP is that it allows all involved parties, both public buyers and private suppliers, to share opportunities as well as risk. As such, public purchasers are able to acquire innovative solutions to satisfy challenging needs. In addition, the project supports the R&D of enterprises, with particular benefits for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are encouraged to grow their competitive capital.

Leading companies in the field of magnet production attended the first QUACO meeting to provide an impression of present needs and share feedback with CERN experts (Image: CERN)

The QUACO project draws together four research infrastructures with similar technical requirements in magnet development. By pooling efforts on technological requirements and using their experience from prior procurements, the partners in QUACO act as a single buyer group with sufficient momentum for potential suppliers to consider the phased development of the requested magnets.

The four QUACO partners are:

Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies alternatives (CEA), France,
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland,
Centro De Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales Y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT), Spain,
Narodowe Centrum Badan Jadrowych (NCBJ), Poland

CERN acts as the lead procurer coordinating and leading the joint procurement in the name and on behalf of the aforementioned organisations.

The project began on 1 March 2016 and will come to an end in February 2020. It is divided into three phases: solution design, prototyping and pilot deployments, with intermediate evaluations after each phase that will progressively select the best competing solutions.

The QUACO Open Market Consultation was held at CERN on 30 March 2016. Leading companies in the field of magnet production attended the meeting to provide an impression of present needs and share feedback with CERN experts. The meeting covered a range of topics, from technical aspects, such as the current status of the Q4 magnet, its technical scope and requirements; to more legal and administrative matters, such as the legal and contractual framework in which the procurement will be executed. Moreover, CERN engineers demonstrated several examples of tools and fabrication methods that might be used in the frame the project. The project tooling requirements were explained, and the market availability and areas for development were identified.

Pre-commercial procurement is a unique and novel procurement method in the field of accelerator components, and QUACO aims to demonstrate its full potential for success in this field.

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magnets

industry

Milestone for HTS coil at UNIGE

Panagiotis Charitos — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 10:48:49 +0000

New milestone for High Temperature Superconductors at UNIGE
by Carmine Senatore & Panos Charitos

Details of the innovative superconducting coil, conceived and manufactured by researchers from UNIGE and Bruker BioSpin. (Image: © L. Windels, UNIGE)

High field superconducting magnets are the enabling technology for particle colliders, modern magnetic medical imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and fusion reactors. To further push the boundaries of science, enhancing resolution or energy, these devices call for ever increasing magnetic fields. However, solenoidal coils built with the Low Temperature Superconductors (LTS) NbTi and Nb3Sn are limited to around 23.5 T while accelerator dipole magnets based on LTS will most likely reach their ultimate performance at about 16 T.

Recent progresses in the technology of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) and, in particular, in REBa2Cu3O7-x (REBCO, RE = rare earth) coated conductors (CCs) have paved a way for the development of all-superconducting solenoids capable of generating fields in the range of 30 T, i.e. well beyond the limits of the present technology. However, the development of REBCO magnets still poses several fundamental and engineering challenges.

Carmine Senatore, Professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is actively working in the study of applied superconductivity and through EuroCirCol is working for the development of high-field magnets for a future circular collider based on Nb3Sn under the scope of the FCC Study and EuroCirCol project. Senarore, also works on the development of HTS magnets. He is deputy leader of one of the working packages of EuCARD2 (WP 10.2) exploring different HTS conductor concepts and aiming to manufacture conductor prototypes to feed the HTS accelerator magnet demonstration program, which is the scope of WP10.

Recently his research group in the University of Geneva achieved the goal of generating a magnetic field of 25 T and, thus, obtaining the European record of highest superconducting generated magnetic field. Researchers at UNIGE worked closely with Bruker BioSpin to combine a Bruker laboratory magnet producing 21 T, already installed at UNIGE, with an innovative superconducting insert coil that allowed to increase the field by an additional 4 T. This means that in total, a field well beyond the 23.5 T reachable with conventional superconducting coils could be generated.

Piotr Komorowski, R&D engineer at Bruker and Professor Carmine Senator (UNIGE) pointing to the record field of 25T (Credits: UNIGE)

Concerning the scope of the project, Senatore says: «high magnetic fields are an indispensable tool for research in physics and material science as well as medical applications. This technological need represents the driver for the development of HTS, as they are the only means to generate fields well above 20 T». Riccardo Tediosi, manager of Bruker BioSpin’s Superconducting Technologies group adds: "the successful test of the 25 T coil represents a positive test-bench of ideas that we are developing for the next-generation HTS-based NMR magnets. We see that commercial breakthroughs in this field are at reach and 2017-2018 is going to be a very exciting period for Bruker and the NMR community."

The REBCO tapes used to achieve the 25 T in the solenoidal magnet are also studied under EuCARD-2 to build a dipole demonstrator able to generate 5 T in standalone configuration. It is then planned to use the same dipole demonstrator in a background field allowing to reach fields of up to 20 T. The 20 T target in the dipole compared to the 25 T reached in the solenoid should not generate confusion. Compared to solenoids, accelerator magnets are different “animals”: they need compact windings for reason of efficiency and cost, very high currents to ease protection, and they experience large forces transverse to the cable. Simple electromagnetics tells us, they require the double of ampere-turns to generate the same field.

However, there is much in common between the 25 T development based on REBCO coils and the goals of EuCARD-2. Senatore explains: We investigated the electrical, mechanical and thermo-physical properties of commercial REBCO tapes from all over the world. The results of these studies guided the choice of the commercial tape to be used for our insert coil and at the same time provided important inputs to the development of the conductor for the dipole prototype of EuCARD-2. The EuCARD-2 dipole will use these tapes in the form of a Roebel cable, a century old technology used for electrical machines. First winding tests have been performed, in various geometries, and a small coil is presently in test at CERN to validate the manufacturing process that will be used for the final magnet, planned for 2017.