Abstract-The final assembly of the Series-Connected Hybrid magnet system for the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB) has occurred with the integration of the superconducting cold mass, cryostat, resistive Florida-Bitter coils, and the cryogenic, chilled water, power, and control subsystems. The hybrid magnet consists of a 13-T superconducting Nb 3 Sn/CICC coil and a set of 12-T resistive, water cooled coils at 4.4 MW. Much of the cryostat and cold mass functional requirements were dictated by the electromagnetic interactions between the superconducting and resistive coils. This includes the radial decentering and axial aligning forces from normal operations and a 1.1 MN fault load. The system assembly was an international achievement with the cold mass being completed at the NHMFL in the USA, cryostat to cold mass interfaces made at Criotec Impianti in Italy, and final assembly at the HZB in Germany.
The inter-strand contact resistance (R C ) of Nb 3 Sn cable-in-conduit conductors (CICCs) is a very important parameter which strongly correlates with ac losses and current redistribution behavior of the CICCs. One way to obtain the desired R C is to apply a layer of hydrocarbon oil on the Nb 3 Sn strands before the CICC Nb 3 Sn reaction heat treatment. In this paper, we measured R C for a Nb 3 Sn CICC sample fabricated with hydrocarbon oil. The measurements were performed using an apparatus designed to apply transverse load and load cycling on CICCs at 4.2 K. Resistances R C between strands of different cabling stages were measured with transverse load up to 188 kN m −1 and load cycles up to 10 000. The results show that R C of the sample increases almost linearly with the first loading. With load cycling, R C increases rapidly at first, but becomes saturated after ∼100 cycles. After 10 000 load cycles, R C decreases with increasing load at a decreasing rate. These behaviors are comparable to observations for CICC with Cr plated strands reported in the literature. Therefore from the R C point of view, Nb 3 Sn CICCs with hydrocarbon oil on strands may be used as a low cost alternative to CICCs with Cr plated strands.
The NHMFL Series Connected Hybrid (SCH) magnet will provide an energy-efficient 36 T to the DC user facility by employing a 20 kA superconducting outsert coil in series with a resistive insert. The magnet outsert consists of three concentric layerwound sub-coils using three different grades of Nb 3 Sn Cable-inConduit Conductors (CICC). The electrical joints in the superconducting outsert require low DC resistance to minimize the refrigeration requirement at the operational 4.5 K temperatures and low AC losses to ensure good stability against ramping operation required by the users. There are four internal splice joints in the outsert, which are Nb 3 Sn to Nb 3 Sn joints with the same design configuration. There are another two terminal joints between the Nb 3 Sn outsert and the two NbTi buslines, which connect the outsert terminals to the two current leads. The two Nb 3 Sn to NbTi terminal joints are of identical configurations. All of the joints will be praying-hands configuration with an operation current of 20 kA. The R&D for the joins has been carried out at the NHMFL. The joints design and test results are discussed in this article.
Recent activities that were conducted on the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin Series-Connected Hybrid outsert coil included the reaction heat treatment and vacuum-pressure impregnation. A thermocouple was wound into the windings for diagnostic purposes during processing of the coil. To maintain a reasonable temperature differential across the coil, the ramp rate was limited to approximately 2.7 • C/hr. Epoxy impregnation was conducted with an epoxy developed in-house. The epoxy is transferred in vacuum but cured with one atmosphere gage pressure applied. Subsequently, the winding hardware was removed including the stainless steel mandrel through a machining operation. After assembly of voltage breaks and voltage taps, Paschen tests to 4 kV were conducted successfully that qualified the ground insulation. In addition, surge tests to qualified the internal insulation with 3 kV applied across the leads were conducted. Impedance measurements were conducted to confirm the internal insulation integrity.
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) in Tallahassee, Florida has designed and is now constructing two Series Connected Hybrid (SCH) magnets, each connecting a superconducting outsert coil and a resistive Florida Bitter insert coil electrically in series. The SCH to be installed at the NHMFL will produce 36 T and provide 1 ppm maximum field inhomogeneity over a 1 cm diameter spherical volume. The SCH to be installed at the Helmholtz Center Berlin (HZB) in combination with a neutron source will produce 25 T to 30 T depending on the resistive insert. The two magnets have a common design for their cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) and superconducting outsert coils. The CICC outsert coil winding packs have an inner diameter of 0.6 m and contribute 13.1 T to the central field using three grades of CICC conductors. Each conductor grade carries 20 kA and employs the same type of Nb 3 Sn superconducting wire, but each grade contains different quantities of superconducting wires, different cabling patterns and different aspect ratios. The cryostats and resistive insert coils for the two magnets are different. This paper discusses the progress in CIC conductor and coil fabrication over the last year including specification, qualification and production activities for wire, cable, conductor and coil processing.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.