Quench protection of the Fermilab-built LHC inner triplet quadrupole MQXB

High-gradient quadrupoles (MQXB) are being developed at Fermilab within the framework of the US-LHC Accelerator project for the LHC interaction regions. 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. Magnet quench protection is provided by quench heaters installed on the outer surface of the coil. This paper reports the results of quench protection studies on the first full length MQXB prototype (MQXP01). The measurements from these tests as well as results from the 1.9-m-long model magnet program are combined with computer generated quench simulations to predict the MQXB performance under LHC operating conditions.