Quench protection studies of LHC interaction region quadrupoles at Fermilab

High gradient quadrupoles are being developed by the US-LHC Accelerator Project for the LHC interaction region inner triplets. Protection strip heaters are the primary means of protecting these magnets against excessively high coil temperatures and coil voltage to ground as a result of a spontaneous quench. The main objective of the quench protection R&D program is to optimize the heater performance within the constraints of the LHC heater power supply and quench detection system. The results of these studies on several two meter long model magnets are presented.