Abstract
The performances of superconducting magnets for particle accelerators are limited by instabilities or disturbances which lead to the transition of the superconducting material to the normal ...resistive state and the activation of the quench protection system to prevent damage to the magnet. To locate the position of the state transition, voltage taps or quench antennas are the most commonly used technologies for their reliability and accuracy. However, during the production phase of a magnet, the number of voltage taps is commonly reduced to simplify the construction process and quench antennas are generally used only for dipoles or quadrupoles to limit the antenna design complexity. To increase the accuracy in the reconstruction of the quench event position, a novel method, suitable for magnets with independent superconducting coils and quench protected without the use of quench heaters, is proposed in this paper. This method, based on standard magnetic measurement techniques for field harmonic analysis, can locate the position of the superconductor transition inside the magnet after the quench event when the magnet has been discharged. Analyzing the not allowed harmonics produced in the field quality at zero current, the position of the quenched coils can be retrieved for any magnet orders without increasing the complexity of the dedicated measurement technique.
The Superconducting Ion Gantry (SIG) project is the contribution from INFN (the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics) to the international SIGRUM project with the aim of exploring new ...technological solutions for the critical elements of a 430 MeV/u carbon ion gantry. The project includes the design and construction of a cos<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\theta</tex-math></inline-formula> 4 T superconducting dipole demonstrator magnet whose main scope is to prove the feasibility of winding and assembling an accelerator magnet type with a relatively small radius of curvature (1.65 m). In addition to the complexity due to the curvature, the target field ramp rate is 0.4 T/s and the cooling system must not adopt liquid helium. This paper discusses the design activities carried out in the last year on the electromagnetic and thermal domains and reports on the present concepts and infrastructure for the first winding trials.
Canted Cosine Theta layout for accelerator magnets is a very attractive since such magnets can be manufactured and assembled without big tooling, and with a relatively modest number of parts and ...tools. In the frame of European Horizon2020 funds, two collaborations, HITRI plus and I.FAST, are developing a CCT design, of 80 mm free bore, 4 T central dipole field, and 0.4 T/s ramp-rate. This magnet is expected to be the bending element of a gantry, to control the beam delivery in therapy with ions (hadrontherapy). The paper illustrates first a comparison between CCT and more classical cosine theta layout, followed by the comparison between Nb-Ti, Nb 3 Sn, MgB 2 , and HTS tapes coils. Relevant requirement for the magnets of this study is to be operated at low current, to limit the heat generation, in sight of a liquid-free cooling system. The results of the comparison is then applied to the design of two magnet demonstrators. Both adopt a low-losses Nb-Ti rope, consistently with the need for keeping the heat generation as low as possible. The first is a straight combined function dipole-quadrupole, while the second is a curved CCT dipole. The paper concludes with the first manufacturing tests for the CCT formers, for which aluminium -bronze, stainless steel and charged PEEK polymer are being explored as basic material.
A collaboration between CERN, CNAO, INFN, and MedAustron has been formed aiming at designing a light rotating gantry suitable for hadron therapy based on 430 MeV/n carbon ion beams. After a first ...design for a 3 T dipole field, as the backbone of the gantry magnetic system, now the collaboration is looking at an alternative design, for at least 4 T field with a faster ramp rate. The magnet is designed according to the cosθ layout to be wound with Nb-Ti superconducting Rutherford cable. One of the main challenges is the very small curvature radius of 1.65 m with a relatively large aperture, of 70-90 mm. Another challenge is the use of indirect cooling despite the cycling operation of 0.4 T/s. The paper reports the preliminary investigation for a 4.5 T dipole. The design will be followed by the construction of a 1 m long demonstrator to be manufactured and tested at INFN (LASA laboratory) in about three years. The conductor is a Rutherford cable of 2.6 µm Nb-Ti filament size, embedded in a Cu-Mn alloy matrix. The resulting gantry is very compact: the collaboration is working on integration between gantry structure and magnets to allow reducing the rotating weight in the range 50-80 tons, which is a factor 4 to 5 less than the present state-of-the-art.
As part of major European collaborations focused on the study of newly developed superconducting magnets for ion therapy, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) is directly involved through the ...Superconducting Ion Gantry (SIG) project. In ion therapy, rotating gantry systems are critical to better preserve healthy tissues during treatments, but they are typically huge and heavy structures: a superconducting version of them would lead to lighter and more viable solutions. SIG aims to design, in collaboration with Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO) and Conseil Européen pour la recherché Nucléaire (CERN), the main superconducting magnets for a 430 MeV/u carbon ion gantry. The main purpose of the project is to study the bending dipoles of this system: they are expected to have a curvature of 1.65 m, aperture of 80 mm, magnetic field of 4 T, ramp rates up to 0.4 T/s and Nb-Ti coils. Among the goal of SIG is the construction of a 30-degree demonstrator to prove the feasibility of these magnets. The plan is to design cos <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\theta</tex-math></inline-formula> magnets, but we are currently working on an alternative strategy with cross section in block coil configuration. These parameters are very challenging and this solution could make it easier to achieve the required goals. In this work the optimized cross section and a novel winding technique for high curvature block coil magnets are presented.
The European project IFAST's WP8 Innovative Superconducting Magnets aims to develop the technology of Canted Cosine Theta (CCT) magnets wound with High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS). ...Superconducting magnets could lower the size and cost of synchrotrons and gantries for research and hadron therapy. HTS materials can lead to higher magnetic fields with smaller cryogenic systems than LTS. However, they pose challenges in cable production schemes, magnet design, and cost. The project's final goal is to design a straight CCT-layout magnet with a central dipole field of 4 T, and a ramp rate of 0.4 T/s, but a lower ramp rate of 0.15-0.2 T/s is acceptable for the first step. The paper presents a preliminary design, discussing in particular the protection scheme with the magnet protection solutions for the conductor: one with two and the other with four HTS tapes. Both options generate 4 T of dipole field without an Iron shell, with at least 10 K of margin at an operational temperature of 20 K. To meet the time and budget constraints of the project, a simple cable based on a co-winding of commercial REBCO tapes is proposed. Protection is the most challenging aspect of the design and an adiabatic quench analysis has been used to determine the required thickness of copper stabilizer tapes to mitigate the risk of damaging the magnet during a quench. Finally, the paper evaluates ac and radial current losses during the magnet cycles, discussing the heat distribution and possible solutions for heat extraction.
The use of Canted Cosine Theta (CCT) magnets for accelerator applications has gained popularity due to their ease of manufacturing and assembly. In the context of two EU-Horizon2020-funded projects, ...HITRIplus and IFAST, the development of two 80 mm free bore and 4 T central field CCT dipoles for use in ion therapy (hadron therapy) is underway. In IFAST, a straight dipole CCT features a superimposed quadrupole component (combined function winding), while in HITRIplus a curved CCT (bending radius of 1.65 m) is wound as pure dipole. Both projects are based on a Cu/Nb-Ti multistrand rope as conductor. The article presents advancements in the engineering design of the magnets. A number of validation tests have been made to validate the choices made during the conceptual design. Characterization tests of the low losses rope, winding tests, splice tests, and impregnation tests will be described. The explored alternatives for the fabrication of the curved formers and the support structure are also discussed.
The INFN-LASA laboratory (Milano, Italy) is involved in the High-Luminosity LHC program for the design, construction, and test of 54 superconducting high-order corrector magnets. One of the ...challenging project stages was the transition from the construction of laboratory prototypes to the series production, awarded to industries, with the demanding requirement of maintaining high-quality production standards. Common and custom quality assurance (QA) methods were adopted for the analysis of the electrical characteristics of the coils. This paper discusses in detail the principle of the methods, their expected sensitivity, and the final observed effectiveness on the 510 produced coils. In some cases, the methods led to early defect detection thus avoiding possible severe damages during the final cold test that have already occurred for a prototype magnet not subject to the QA procedures described in this paper.
Next generation ion therapy magnets both for gantry and for accelerator (synchrotron) are under investigation in a recently launched European collaboration that, in the frame of the European H2020 ...HITRI plus and I.FAST programmes, has obtained some funding for work packages on superconducting magnets. Design and technology of superconducting magnets will be developed for ion therapy synchrotron and -especially- gantry, taking as reference beams of 430 MeV/nucleon ions (C-ions) with 10 10 ions/pulse. The magnets are about 60-90 mm diameter, 4 to 5 T peak field with a field change of about 0.3 T/s and good field quality. The paper will illustrate the organization of the collaboration and the technical program. Various superconductor options (LTS, MgB 2 or HTS) and different magnet shapes, like classical CosTheta or innovative Canted CosTheta (CCT), with curved multifunction (dipole and quadrupole), are under evaluation, CCT being the baseline. These studies should provide design inputs for a new superconducting gantry design for existing facilities and, on a longer time scale, for a brand-new hadron therapy centre to be placed in the South East Europe (SEEIIST project).
The Superconducting Ion Gantry (SIG) project aims to design, construct, and test a curved superconducting dipole demonstrator magnet for an ion gantry (up to a rigidity of 6.6 Tm). The main ...demonstrator magnet parameters are a dipolar field of 4 T generated into a toroidal aperture with an 80 mm diameter, 1.65 m curvature radius, and 30° angular sector. The project is inserted in the framework of the EuroSIG collaboration among CNAO, CERN, INFN, and MedAustron. Within this collaboration, the main goal of SIG is to perform a feasibility study of winding and assembling cos-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\theta</tex-math></inline-formula> coils with a small curvature radius. In addition, a parallel program at CERN is dedicated to the study of the indirect cooling problem through the construction of a straight thermal demonstrator magnet sharing the SIG cross-section. The basic idea behind these programs is to check whether the vast experience of the community on superconducting accelerator magnets design can lead to a breakthrough in the gantry magnets domain. This article shows the main elements of the conceptual design of the SIG magnet and reports on the first winding trial performed at the LASA laboratory, in Milan, with a copper dummy cable. Moreover, possible solutions for the winding, curing, and impregnation of highly curved cos<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\theta</tex-math></inline-formula> coils are discussed.
