Quench protection of the LHC inner triplet quadrupoles built at Fermilab

High gradient quadrupoles are being developed by the US-LHC Accelerator project for the LHC interaction region inner triplets. These 5.5 m long magnets have a single 70 mm aperture and operate in superfluid helium at a peak gradient of 215 T/m. Through the construction and test of eight 2 meter long model quadrupoles, strip heaters of various geometries and insulation thicknesses have proven to be effective in protecting the magnets from excessively high coil temperatures and coil voltages to ground. This paper reports on the results of the model program to optimize the heater performance within the context of the LHC inner triplet electrical power and quench detection scheme.