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During 1992 at Fermilab, a series of nine 50-mm-aperture, 15-m-long, SSC superconducting dipole magnets, designed jointly by Fermilab, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the SSC Laboratory, have been built and successfully cold tested. Seven of these dipole magnets, designated for the Accelerator System String Test (ASST) carried out at SSCL in Dallas, were assembled at Fermilab by General Dynamics personnel, and have achieved the nominal operating current level without significant training.1,2 In addition, a series of four R&D magnets (DCA320 323) were manufactured at Fermilab to test an alternative insulation schemes. In this paper we present the quench performance of these four R&D magnets, which were cold tested at the Fermilab Magnet Test Facility at nominal temperatures of 4.35 K, 3.85 K, and 3.50 K. An extended characterization test was performed on one of these magnets (DCA322). During this test the magnet was successfully cooled down to superfluid He temperature (1.8 K) and reached a field B ≥ 9.5 T.

This paper presents preliminary results of magnetic field measurements made on a series of 50 mm aperture 15 m long SSC collider dipole magnets designed and manufactured at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) for use in the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL) Accelerator System String Test. The magnets were assembled by Fermilab and General Dynamics personnel, and were tested at the Magnet Test Facility (MTF) at Fermilab. Measurements of the dipole field angle, dipole field strength, and field shape parameters at various stages in magnet construction and testing are described.

A series of model SSC collider dipole magnets (50 mm aperture, 1.5 m magnetic length) are being built and tested at Fermilab. The early magnets have been built according to the Fermilab baseline design. The magnets are precursors to the full length 15 m models to be used in the Accelerator Systems String Test at the SSCL. All magnets are instrumented with voltage taps for quench localization and with strain gages to measure stresses and deflections in the coil and support structure. Measurements are made during assembly, cooldown, excitation, and warmup. Comparisons are made between data and design expectations, and magnet behavior is correlated with changes in the magnet design and assembly methods.

In this paper we present results of quench testing of full length SSC dipole magnets at Fermilab. The data are from the first six of a series of thirteen 15 m long, 50 mm aperture SSC dipole magnets which are being built and tested at Fermilab. These magnets were designed jointly by Fermilab, Brookhaven Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the SSC Laboratory. Among the major goals for this series of magnets are to transfer magnet production technology to the lead vendor for the Collider Dipole Magnet, the General Dynamics Corporation, and to demonstrate industrial production by the vendor. The first magnet in the series, DCA311, was built by Fermilab technicians to establish assembly procedures. The second magnet, DCA312, was the “technology transfer magnet and was built jointly by Fermilab and General Dynamics technicians. The next seven, DCA313-319 are being built by General Dynamics personnel using Fermilab facilities and procedures. However, Fermilab personnel still operate the major tooling, provide the welders, perform assembly of items that would not be part of production magnets (e.g. voltage taps), and oversee the QA program. Five of these 7 GD-built magnets will be used in the Accelerator Systems String Test (ASST) to be carried out in Dallas later this year. The last four magnets, DCA320-323, are being built by Fermilab alone.”

A series of full-scale demonstration SSC collider dipole magnets were built for the ASST (Accelerator System String Test). These magnets, DCA311 through DCA319, have 50 mm aperture and 15 m magnetic length with 6.6 Tesla uniform field. For the support structure of the W6733B cross section[1], the Fermilab design uses a vertical split[2] in the yoke. The end sections of the magnet have solid spacers and are supported by collet clamps[3]. The splices between inner and outer coils are made in preforms which lie outside of the high field region. The magnets were produced in pipeline fashion with no intentional major changes between magnets. As a part of the technology transfer program, the last 7 magnets were built by General Dynamics personnel using the magnet construction facilities of Fermilab, while the first two magnets were built entirely by Fermilab personnel.

Several short model SSC 50mm bore dipoles are being built and tested at Fermilab. Mechanical design of these magnets has been determined from experience involved in the construction and testing of 40mm dipoles. Construction experience includes coil winding, curing and measuring, coil end part design and fabrication, ground insulation, instrumentation, collaring and yoke assembly. Fabrication techniques are explained and construction problems are discussed. Similarities and differences from the 40mm dipole tooling and magnet components are outlined. Test results from the first models are presented.

The yoke in SSC dipole magnets provides mechanical support to the collared coil as well as serving as a magnetic element. The yoke and skin are used to increase the coil prestress and reduce collar deflections under excitation. Yokes split on the vertical or horizontal mid-plane offer different advantages in meeting these objectives. To evaluate the relative merits of the two configuration a 1.8 m model dipole was assembled and tested first with horizontally split and then with vertically split yoke laminations. The magnet was extensively instrumented to measure azimuthal and axial stresses in the coil and the cold mass skin resulting from cooldown and excitation. Mechanical behavior of this magnet with each configuration is compared with that of other long and short models and with calculations.

Several 17-meter-long SSC R&D dipole magnets, instrumented with numerous voltage taps on the inner quarter coils, have been tested. These magnets, protected with quench heaters, differed in mechanical details as well as in the cables used for the winding. The voltage taps enabled us to measure longitudinal and azimuthal quench propagation velocities. Summary plots of these velocities are presented showing that, even though the Fourier conduction model doesn’t apply, the mechanism of the quench is reproducible from magnet to magnet. Correlations are established between the velocities and the fraction of short sample. After showing that for currents higher than 5000 A the magnet is self-protected, we investigate the relation between the number of MIITs and the quench characteristics.

Tests have been completed on three prototype magnets and two production magnets to be used for the Tevatron DO/BO low-β insertion. These cold iron, two shell quadrupoles are made of 36 strand Rutherford type NbTi superconducting cable. Magnet field gradients well in excess of the design 1.41 T/cm have been achieved at a transfer function of 0.291 T/cm/kA. Quench performance at 4.2 K and 3.7 K and magnetic multipole measurement data are presented and discussed.

Over the past year, magnets that meet the SSC field and quench training criteria have been developed as a result of the detailed understanding of magnet performance made possible by tests on a series of model magnets. The SSC dipole magnet design is a cos θ style coil with a 4-cm aperture and a magnetic length of 16.6 m. The design operating field is 6.6 T at a current of 6.5 kVA. Design, fabrication, and testing of full-length model magnets has been a cooperative effort among the SSC Central Design group and three major national laboratories: BNL, FNAL, and LBL.

The test facility used for R&D testing of full scale development dipole magnets for the SSC is described. The Fermilab Magnet Test Facility, originally built for production testing of Tevatron magnets, has been substantially modified to allow testing also of SSC magnets. Two of the original six test stands have been rebuilt to accommodate testing of SSC magnets at pressures between 1.3 Atm and 4 Atm and at temperatures between 1.8 K and 4.8 K and the power system has been modified to allow operation to at least 8 kA. Recent magnets have been heavily instrumented with voltage taps to allow detailed study of quench location and propagation and with strain gage based stress, force and motion transducers. A data acquisition system has been built with a capacity to read from each SSC test stand up to 220 electrical quench signals, 32 dynamic pressure, temperature and mechanical transducer signals during quench and up to 200 high precision, low time resolution, pressure, temperature and mechanical transducer signals. The quench detection and protection systems is also described.