LHC Seminar

FRESCA: Facility for the acceptance tests of the superconducting cables for LHC

by Arjan Verweij (CERN-LHC)

Europe/Zurich
CERN

CERN

Description
In the forthcoming five years about 6400 km of super- conducting cable will be produced to be used in the main dipoles and quadrupoles for the LHC. Part of the acceptance of these cables is made at CERN. To do so, a unique test facility, called FRESCA, has been built. Superconducting cables can be tested at temperatures down to 1.8 K, currents up to 32 kA, and fields up to 10 T. The facility is based on the double-cryostat configuration, i.e. the background magnet and cable samples are housed in separate but combined cryostats. Besides these acceptance tests, various R&D topics on superconducting cables can be studied utilising FRESCA. First, an overview is given on the superconducting cable production for LHC and the requirements for the acceptance tests of these cables. The test facility is described, including the regulation, protection, data acquisition, cryogenics, and background magnet. The previously used 56 mm aperture 9 T dipole magnet as well as the recently installed 88 mm 10 T dipole are presented. Finally, recent results of measurements on several cables are shown.