The development of accelerator magnets able to produce magnetic fields beyond those attained in the main magnets of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) requires the use of conductors with enhanced superconducting properties with respect to the well-known Nb-Ti technology. In the present days, Nb3Sn has become the preferred choice for the windings of such new high-field designs, thanks to its...
The SMC (Short Model Coil) program was started at CERN around 2008 to develop the Nb3Sn technology. The small magnet structure allowed relatively cheap and fast test of various superconducting coils. One of the key questions was the relation between the pre-stress and the magnet’s performance, to measure which dozens of strain gauges were installed on the coil, axial tie-rods and the external...