Impregnation damage monitoring for the canted-cosine-theta magnets using time-domain reflectometry

Abstract

Impregnation plays a crucial role in the performance and protection of superconducting magnets. To investigate the impregnation status during quench training, a vector network analyzer (VNA)-based time domain reflectometry (TDR) is introduced. The proposed method and analyses focus on demonstrating their applicability within canted-cosine-theta (CCT) magnets, covering both artificially induced quenches using spot heaters and naturally occurring quenches. To verify the performance of the proposed method, VNA-based TDR is applied to CCT Subscale magnets developed in the US Magnet Development Program. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of CCT superconducting magnet behavior and inform strategies for improving their performance.