Quench Analysis of MICE Spectrometer Superconducting Solenoid

• Published in: IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity Vol. 22; no. 3; p. 4702904
• Main Authors: Kashikhin, V., Bross, A., Prestemon, S.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.06.2012; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 3D simulations; Applied sciences; Coils; Connection and protection apparatus; Diodes; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Failure; Heaters; Heating; Magnetic field; Mice; Miscellaneous; Protection systems; quench; Resistors; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Solenoids; Spectrometers; Studies; Superconducting magnets; superconducting solenoid; Superconductivity; thermal analysis; Three dimensional; Three dimensional displays; Various equipment and components; quench; Electromagnetism; Superheating; Diode; Shunt; Heating element; Protective device; 3D simulations; Passive system; Failures; Damage prevention; superconducting solenoid; Inductance; Solenoid; Protection system; Coding; System simulation; Thermal analysis; Magnetic field; Resistor; Vector field
• ISSN: 1051-8223; 1558-2515
• DOI: 10.1109/TASC.2012.2182976

MICE superconducting spectrometer solenoids fabrication and tests are in progress now. First tests of the Spectrometer Solenoid discovered some issues which could be related to the chosen passive quench protection system. Both solenoids do not have heaters and quench propagation relied on the "quench back" effect, cold diodes, and shunt resistors. The solenoids have very large inductances and stored energy which is 100% dissipated in the cold mass during a quench. This makes their protection a challenging task. The paper presents the quench analysis of these solenoids based on 3D FEA solution of coupled transient electromagnetic and thermal problems. The simulations used the Vector Fields QUENCH code. It is shown that in some quench scenarios, the quench propagation is relatively slow and some areas can be overheated. We describe ways of improving the solenoids' quench protection in order to reduce the risk of possible failure.