The cryogenic system for the superconducting solenoid magnet of the CMS experiment

The design concept of the CMS experiment, foreseen for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project at CERN, is based on a superconducting solenoid magnet. The large coil will be made of a four layers winding generating the 4 T uniform magnetic induction required by the detector. The length of the solenoid is 13 m with an inner diameter of 5.9 m. The mass kept at liquid helium temperature totals 220 t and the electromagnetic stored energy is 2.7 GJ. The windings are indirectly cooled with a liquid helium flow driven by a thermosyphon effect. The external cryogenic system consists of a 1.5 kW at 4.5 K (entropy equivalent) cryoplant including an additional liquid nitrogen precooling unit and a 5000 litre liquid helium buffer. The whole magnet and cryogenic system will be tested at the surface by 2003 before final installation in the underground area of LHC.