30 July 2026 to 5 August 2026
Natal Convention Center
America/Sao_Paulo timezone

Thermal Stabilization System for the MPD Time Projection Chamber at NICA: Status and Challenges

Not scheduled
20m
Natal Convention Center

Natal Convention Center

Via Costeira Sen. Dinarte Medeiros Mariz, 6664-6704 - Ponta Negra, Natal - RN, 59090-002
Talk Operation, Performance and Upgrade of Present Detectors

Speaker

Alexander Fedotov (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research)

Description

The time projection chamber (TPC) requires its working gas to be thermally stabilized within ±0.1 K to preserve a uniform electron drift velocity across the drift volume. This is achieved with a leakless water-circulation system (LCS), where the coolant pressure is kept below ambient so that any breach draws air inside rather than leaking water onto electronics. A key design challenge is the narrow pressure budget between leaks (>1 atm) and cavitation (<0.1 atm), which is further reduced due to viscous friction and hydrostatic pressure due to height of the detector. The LCS was engineered using a fluid network model based on 1D Navier-Stokes equations on the graph edges (pipe segments), with conservation of mass and momentum enforced at the nodes to represent junctions and manifolds.
Laboratory tests demonstrated PID-controlled temperature non-uniformity within ±0.08 K. Precision thermometry is provided by 260 channels, using per-channel correction maps and polynomial sensor calibration to reach ±0.03 K accuracy. For gas-line conditioning, a shell-and-tube heat exchanger reduced the gas-to-water temperature difference by 10-15 times over 20-200 L/min gas flow. The TPC LCS is planned to be commissioned in the first phase of the MPD detector in year 2026.

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Authors

Alexander Fedotov (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Dr Sergey Movchan (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Dr Gleb Mescheriakov (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Mr Alexander Makarov (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Mr Igor Balaschov (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Dr Oleg Fateev (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Mr Alexander Ribakov (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Ms Maryia Miadzvedzeva (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Ms Yulia Shafarevich (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Mr Nikita Bikmetov (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) Mr Ilya Zur (Institute for Nuclear Problems of BSU)

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