Pre-Load Studies on a 2-m Long Nb3Sn 11 T Model Magnet for the High Luminosity Upgrade of the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider luminosity upgrade requires the replacement of standard 8.3 T Nb-Ti main dipole magnets with pairs of shorter 11 T Nb
₃
Sn dipole magnets. After the manufacturing and testing of several 2 m-long 11 T models, the full-length 11 T magnet series production is now ongoing. As a result of a degraded quench performance in several short models, attributed to excessive stress in the coils’ midplanes, an upper hard limit for the coils’ pre-stress was set to avoid any conductor degradation. With the aim of further investigating the influence of a lower pre-stress, an additional double-aperture short model was manufactured. The first aperture was assembled with the standard pre-stress target, in line with the series production. The second aperture was assembled with half of the standard pre-stress. Both apertures were then assembled into a 2-in-1 structure, but connected individually in order to power them independently to allow for comparison studies. Contrary to previously built 11 T magnets, the conductor type is also different as Powder-in-tube (PIT) cable was used, instead of standard Restacked-Rod-Process (RRP) cable. Additionally, the quench heaters for magnet protection were not impregnated as previously done, but placed on the outer radial surface of the coils, in agreement with the final decision for the 11 T series production. This paper describes the manufacturing and testing campaign results of this last 11 T short model.