Acceleration of the LHC commissioning tests
The quadrupole and main dipole circuits have been powered up to 10,200 amps in Sector 4-5. Sector 5-6 is currently being cooled and will be the next to undergo electrical tests, which will be stepped up over the next few weeks.
The Control Room is a hive of activity while the electrical tests are carried out.
Numerous electrical tests were carried out in Sector 4-5 during the period from November to mid-February. Once the temperature had been stabilised at around 1.9 K (-271°C) at the beginning of December, the circuits were initially powered up to 8,500 amps. The main dipole circuit was then gradually brought up to 10,200 amps during the last week of January, then the main quadrupole circuits to 10,800 amps in February. At this intensity of current the magnets are capable of guiding a 6 TeV proton beam. During this process, for both the dipole and the quadrupole circuits, a number of training quenches occurred.
138 superconducting circuits ramped in unison at an equivalent beam energy of 5.3 TeV.
“Given the limited time at our disposal, we decided to stop at this energy, which is very close to the target, and start to commission the numerous circuits (each sector has 200) before Sector 4-5 was warmed up again. The mechanics have to connect the triplet (the focussing magnet on both sides of each experiment). We have scanned all the circuits to check that they are working properly. Today we know that the electrical circuits in this sector require no major corrective action”, says Roberto Saban, responsible for coordinating the commissioning of the LHC technical systems.
Read more here.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:51 am
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