accelerating-news-arc.web.cern.ch - issue 11

"Green Magnets" to save energy in accelerators

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 10:22:24 +0000

"Green Magnets" to save energy in accelerators
by Livia Lapadatescu (CERN), Thomas Hind (CERN)

Fig 1: Green Magnets developed at Danfysik
Image credit: Danfysik

A partnership of universities and industry have produced “Green Magnets” which give more than 95% electrical efficiency savings. The “Green Magnets” technology could be used to replace non-superconducting accelerator electromagnets.

The idea for the magnets, which work by using very strong permanent magnetic materials based on rare earth minerals and shaping them in such a way to provide the desired magnetic field, originated at the International Climate Summit in Copenhagen in 2009. The partners expressed a desire to save energy and cut carbon emissions in accelerators and identified magnets as their primary power consumer. Breaking their set target of reducing power consumption by 75%, they managed to achieve a 95% cut in energy use in the magnets, as well as removing the need for water cooling infrastructure, heavy cabling and large power supplies.

The magnets were developed through a project run by five partners from academia and industry (Aarhus University, Aalborg University, Aarhus School of Engineering, Sintex A/S and Danfysik A/S). With financial support coming from Danish Advanced Technology Foundation the consortium is able to replace non-superconducting electromagnets of up to 1 Tesla which need not more than +/- 25% field variation during operation.

Having overcome various technical challenges, such as temperature stability and radiation resistance, what remains now is the challenge of increasing the focus of labs on energy consumption and sustainability, in addition to successfully marketing the need for more energy efficient magnets such as the Green Magnets.

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permanent magnets

energy efficiency

industry

Knowledge Technology Transfer

issue 11

First industry magnet for SESAME storage ring

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 08:58:29 +0000

First industry magnet for SESAME storage ring
by Attilio Milanese (CERN)

   Fig1: View of the first series SESAME sextupole from the correctors connection side.
   Image credit: CNE Technology Center

In July 2014, a sextupole corrector magnet for the SESAME storage ring arrived at CERN for tests and magnetic measurements. It is the first unit out of 32 to be delivered by CNE Technology Center, a Cypriot based company under the EU-CERN CESSAMag project.

In November last year, a pre-series sextupole for SESAME was prepared at CERN, to check the design and to tune the manufacturing procedures before placing the order for the series production to industry. The contracts were then awarded to a Cypriot and a Pakistani company. The CERN team has been working closely with both companies to transfer the knowledge from CERN needed to build these magnets.

The first unit out of the 32 magnets from Cyprus has already arrived and was tested at CERN. Measurements carried out at CERN together with SESAME colleagues on this magnet show a very precise assembly, resulting in magnetic field homogeneity of 0.2‰ within 2/3 of the aperture. The unit is also mechanically, electrically and hydraulically sound, assuring good reliability during operation. This makes the magnet apt for the lattice of a synchrotron light source such as SESAME and it is a major step in preparing the SESAME storage ring.

The Cypriot company has in parallel also assembled more than 50% of the components needed for the rest of the contract. At this point the first magnet from Pakistan is currently being assembled.

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SESAME

CESSAMag

sextupole

Knowledge Technology Transfer

issue 11

10 years of success for ISIS RFQ

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 07:59:16 +0000

10 years of success for ISIS RFQ
by Charlotte Houghton

Part of the small team who designed, built, tested, installed and commissioned the ISIS RFQ upgrade.
Image credit: RAL

Earlier this year ISIS, based as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, celebrated ten years of their radio frequency quadrupole accelerator (RFQ), which in 2004, replaced an ancient and unreliable Cockcroft-Walton electrostatic generator pre-injector on ISIS.

Originally part of Nimrod, the predecessor of ISIS, the Cockcroft-Walton set generated a DC voltage of 665,000V. In 2004 the whole system was replaced by three solenoid magnets and a radio frequency quadrupole accelerator; to decrease the machine’s downtime and improve the stability of the beam. Although the concept of RFQs had been around since the 1970s, and had been successfully deployed on high-energy machines in the US, Russia and at CERN, they hadn’t been tested on machines that would run at high duty factor, 24/7 for most of the year.

As there was a clear risk in changing to the RFQ, Alan Letchford, who was part of the ISIS upgrade team, travelled to Frankfurt to meet Professor Schempp. After Alan’s meeting with, at the time, the world’s 4-rod RFQ expert, he travelled back to ISIS to implement what he had learnt. The upgrade team, under Alan’s instruction, built the entire set-up as it would be installed and ran it for a year, comprehensively checking and testing the beam parameters against the design. In the ten years since its installation, it has been an almost invincible system. Apart from expected ancillary part failures the RFQ has accelerated nearly 10 billion beam pulses containing 4 x 10²³ protons, and absorbed around 700 gigajoules of RF energy; bringing the reliability of the RFQ to almost 100%.

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radio frequency quadrupole

ISIS accelerator

history

issue 11

Accelerators: Powering Cutting Edge Research

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 07:54:01 +0000

Accelerators: Powering Cutting Edge Research
by Charlotte Houghton (STFC)

Fig 1 left: Image on the inside cover. 3D model of Diamond Light Source. Image credit: Diamond Light Source
Fig 2 right: Accelerators brochure front cover. Image credit: STFC

What are the practical benefits of particle accelerators? Look out for a brand new brochure, due out this September, which will help accelerator scientists explain the benefits of their work to the general public. By using real-life examples and scenarios everybody can relate to, Accelerators: Powering Cutting Edge Research explores the many areas in which accelerator science has made a positive impact on modern life.

The brochure has been produced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Cockcroft Institute and the Institute of Physics. It has been commissioned to raise public awareness of the benefits of particle accelerators in research, through case studies that answer questions such as:

How can we meet our energy needs without adding to greenhouse gas emissions?
How will border protection agencies, and the technology they use, continually evolve to face the ever growing threat of terrorist attacks?
How can we find new ways of preserving our cultural heritage?

Featuring particle accelerators from around the world, the brochure highlights how accelerators influence our everyday lives by covering topics such as:

Energy- solar cells, keeping the lights on at power stations and turning carbon monoxide into fuel.
Radiotherapy- treating cancer patients, improving diagnosis and radiotherapy efficiency, and developing new cancer treatments.
Medicine- treating HIV, detecting Parkinson’s disease and dealing with diabetes.
The environment- storing hydrogen, studying clouds and decontaminating Fukushima.
Industry- fuelling the economy, making life sweeter and making aircraft safer.
Security- detecting terrorist threats, solving mysterious deaths and fighting counterfeiters.
And finally, the natural world and heritage science- conserving our heritage, calculating landslide risks and analysing Roman remains.

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particle accelerators

new brochure

accelerator scientists

issue 11

Second test of HQ02: even better

Margarita Synanidi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:36:23 +0000

Second test of HQ02: even better
by Gian Luca Sabbi (LBNL), Ezio Todesco (CERN)

Fig1: First training of HQ02 (red diamonds), slow training at 2.2 K (blue squares), and second test with fast training towards 17 kA (black circles)
Image credit: CERN and US LARP

HQ is a 120 mm aperture Nb₃Sn quadrupole developed by the US LHC Accelerator Research Program (US LARP). It presents all features and technological choices that will be used in the 150 mm quadrupole triplet (QXF in the CERN jargon) for the HL-LHC era.

During the first test, the magnet proved to be able to operate at the nominal current of 15 kA. It has then been pushed towards larger currents (in the LHC we require the magnet to reach 110% of nominal current), showing a pretty long training in the region 15-16 kA [see Fig1]. The analysts suggested to have a second assembly increasing the compression of the coil to guarantee a faster training. In the second test at CERN, the magnet reached nominal current without any quench, and trained to 110% of nominal current in a few quenches. This confirmed once more the validity of mechanical structure, allowing fine tuning of the stress in the coil. HQ outperformed the Nb-Ti twin of the same aperture, which showed a slower training.

The magnet was also used as a test bed for studying quench protection. HL LHC magnets will have a ratio between the stored energy and the coil volume (which absorbs that energy) which is twice of what we have today in the LHC. During the HQ test, special test were done to understand when coil degradation takes place, resulting in broader limits than expected. Moreover, a novel technique (CLIQ) (CLIQ) based on the discharge of a capacitor in the magnet provoking fast quench of the coils, has also been also successfully tested. Results have been presented at the ASC conference in August, where the CLIQ paper got a special award.

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One step closer to the 11 Tesla dipole magnet

Margarita Synanidi — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 07:18:38 +0000

One step closer to the 11 Tesla dipole magnet supported by
HL-LHC
by Mikko Karppinen (CERN)

First CERN 11 T –single-aperture model magnet MBHSP101 right after the cold mass assembly in B-180.
Image credit: F. Lackner @CERN

The 11-Tesla dipole project aims to replace some 8-Tesla dipole magnets in the LHC tunnel with shorter, stronger 11-Tesla magnets to create enough space to install additional collimators for the HL-LHC upgrade. The project is progressing well on both sides of the Atlantic as teams from Fermilab and CERN collaborate to reach the ambitious target.

After their success with the 1-metre-long single-aperture dipole model, Fermilab is just completing the first 1-m-long 2-in-1 model magnet, which is the very first magnet of its kind based on Nb3Sn technology.

At CERN, a 2-metre-long model magnet using the first practise coils -one of which was made from Nb3SN and connected in single coil configuration - has been constructed and shown excellent test results. The main purpose of this model was to validate the entire assembly process and the tooling before building the first “real” single aperture model magnet. The results of the training performance tests of the practice model magnet exceeded initial expectations reaching a peak field of 12.9T and 12.5T in the coil. Moreover after a thermal cycle the magnet showed very little re-training, which is also very encouraging.

The first CERN model magnet is at the final stages of assembly and the cold test is planned for early October. “We are keeping our fingers crossed for the magnetic performance to be at the same level as the practice model” says Mikko Karppinen, who for three years has led the design and R&D effort for the 11 T. “This would be encouraging news for the building the full-scale 5.5 m prototype” he adds.

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Hi Lumi LHC

11 Tesla Dipole Project

magnets

Fermilab

issue 11

Beam Dynamics meets Magnets

Margarita Synanidi — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:04:36 +0000

Beam Dynamics meets Magnets supported by EuCARD-2
by Giuliano Franchetti (GSI)

                                         Group photo from the recent workshop at the Darmstadtium.
                                                            Image credit: Paul Goergen

An unforeseen collaboration was formed as a result of a workshop last December, which brought together two independent working groups, the beam dynamics and magnets experts.

“EuCARD-2XBEAM-XRING activity makes it possible to think out of the box and to bring experts together to exchange their ideas who would otherwise not collaborate“, says Franchetti, the father of this initiative.
The “Beam Dynamics meets Magnets” workshop has attracted over 80 members of the Particle Accelerator Beam Dynamics and of the Accelerator Magnet communities.. Topics covered ranged from energy frontier to intensity frontier. The meeting has been an unprecedented forum for traditionally independent entities to share experiences accumulated in different laboratories characterized by different traditions, different projects, and different people.

The discussions at the meeting have primarily been center on FAIR project issues. Discussion on inside aspects of LHC, J-PARC, and ATF2, along with ISIS put the FAIR effort into a new and more positive prospective. The open discussions, and information from the workshop contributed to tune the FAIR roadmap for dipoles and quadrupoles procurement, and the strategies of magnet measurements as well as the interplay with beam dynamics to a new and more efficient level. Remarkably, at the end of the workshop, the participants have acknowledged the need to keep the “meeting” going and sharing information.

Given the positive results of the meeting, the next one has already been scheduled for 1-4 December 2014. It will be coordinated by the EuCARD2 XBEAM-XRING Network and hosted by PSI.

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