LBNL Report Number LBNL-2001081. Presented at the 2003 Advanced Accelerator Magnet Workshop

Variations in the transport current of a superconducting magnet cause several types of transitory losses. Due to its relatively short time constant, usually of the order of a few tens of milliseconds, interfilament coupling loss can have a significant effect on the coil protection against overheating after a quench. This loss is deposited in the strands and can facilitate a more homogeneous transition to the normal state of the coil turns. Furthermore, the presence of local interfilament coupling currents reduces the magnet's differential inductance, which in turn provokes a faster discharge of the transport current. The lumped-element dynamic electrothermal model of a superconducting magnet has been developed to reproduce these effects. Simulations are compared to experimental electrical transients and found in good agreement. After its validation, the model can be used for predicting the performance of quench protection systems based on energy extraction, quench heaters, the newly developed coupling-loss-induced quench protection system, or combinations of those. The impact of interfilament coupling loss on each protection system is discussed.

The concepts and technical challenges related to developing a fourth generation electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source with a rf frequency greater than 40 GHz and magnetic confinement fields greater than twice B(ECR) will be explored in this article. Based on the semiempirical frequency scaling of ECR plasma density with the square of operating frequency, there should be significant gains in performance over current third generation ECR ion sources, which operate at rf frequencies between 20 and 30 GHz. While the third generation ECR ion sources use NbTi superconducting solenoid and sextupole coils, the new sources will need to use different superconducting materials, such as Nb(3)Sn, to reach the required magnetic confinement, which scales linearly with rf frequency. Additional technical challenges include increased bremsstrahlung production, which may increase faster than the plasma density, bremsstrahlung heating of the cold mass, and the availability of high power continuous wave microwave sources at these frequencies. With each generation of ECR ion sources, there are new challenges to be mastered, but the potential for higher performance and reduced cost of the associated accelerator continues to make this a promising avenue for development.

The high luminosity upgrade project U.S. LARP/HiLumi has successfully tested the first 1.5 m prototype quadrupole MQXFS1 at Fermilab’ Magnet test facility. Several thermal cycles and test programs were performed, with different preload configurations. To localize and characterize quenches, a quench antenna and voltage taps are used. The quench antenna was placed inside a warm bore of an anticryostat centered in the magnet. We varied the length between quench antenna segments from 2.54 to 15.24 cm, and shifted the location of the antenna to localize the quench origin along the various wedge and spacers transitions in the lead end of the magnet. We present results on the identified quench locations for the second and third thermal cycle in this paper.