Search

Operation of the LHC during 2010 and 2011 with 3.5 TeV beam energy and luminosity up to 3.65x1033 cm-2 s-1, led to radiation-induced failures of micro-electronic devices used in the cryogenic control system. Mitigating actions addressed equipment relocation and corrective patches on electronics and software. Driven by the technical requirements and by feedback from the cryogenic operation team, numerous consolidations and improvements were implemented on-the-fly, enhancing availability and operability of the LHC cryogenics. Furthermore, additional diagnostic tools, test benches, technical procedures and trainings have been provided to strengthen first line support services.

Within the ITER-CERN collaboration agreement, task “PROCUREMENT OF CRYOGENIC THERMOMETERS TO MONITOR ITER MAGNETS AND FEEDER TEMPERATURES”, CERN is investigating what would be the expected accuracy when using non-calibrated Cernox™ temperature sensors at 4.2 K. The cernox™ is a resistive type temperature sensor that is capable of measuring the full temperature range of interest for ITER, it is 4.2 K to 300 K. Non-calibrated cernox™ sensors are delivered with a table listing the resistance at the following temperatures: 4.2 K, 77 K and 300 K. CERN has deployed several thousands of individually calibrated cernox™ sensors and they are used to compare the manufacturer data at 4.2 K with their individual calibration performed by CERN. Within a sample size of 5’941 sensors, 99.39% of the population is able to provide a measurement within +/-0.1 K at 4.2 well within the requirements at low temperature specified by ITER.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryogenic system was progressively and successfully run for the LHC accelerator operation period starting from autumn 2009. The paper recalls the cryogenic system architecture and main operation principles. The system stability during magnets powering and availability periods for high energy beams with first collisions at 3.5 TeV are presented. Treatment of typical problems, weak points of the system and foreseen future consolidations will be discussed.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was commissioned at CERN and started operation with beams in 2008. The LHC makes extensive use of superconductors, in magnets, electrical feed boxes and accelerating cavities, which are operated at cryogenic temperatures. The process automation for the cryogenic distribution around the 27 km accelerator circumference is based on 18 Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs); overall, they handle 4 000 control loops and 8 000 alarms and interlocks; 16 000 cryogenic sensors and actuators are accessed through industrial field networks. This paper reviews the control system architecture and the main hardware and software components; presents the hardware commissioning and software production methodologies; and illustrates some of the problems faced during development, commissioning and nominal cryogenics operation, together with the solutions applied.

There are more than 6000 electronic cards for the instrumentation of the LHC cryogenics, housed in crates and distributed around the 27 km tunnel. Cards and crates will be exposed to a complex radiation field during the 10 years of LHC operation. Rad-tol COTS and rad-hard ASIC have been selected and individually qualified during the design phase of the cards. The test setup and the acquired data presented in this paper target the qualitative assessment of the compliance with the LHC radiation environment of an assembled system. It is carried out at the CNGS test facility which provides exposure to LHC-like radiation field.

The operation and monitoring of the LHC requires a cryogenic instrumentation system of an unprecedented size (800 instrumentation crates, holding 15000 sensors and actuators), with strict constraints on temperature measurement uncertainty and radiation hardness for all sensors and actuators. This paper presents the applied procedures of quality assurance and the specific hard- & software tools used to meet and track the mentioned requirements during its lifetime (fabrication, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance); within the given constraints of time schedule, accessibility and coordination with other teams.

The Large Hadron Collider makes extensive use of superconductors, in magnets for bending and focusing the particles, and in RF cavities for accelerating them, which are operated at 1.9 K and 4.5 K. The process automation for the cryogenic distribution around the accelerator circumference is based on 16 Programmable Logic Controllers, each running 250 control loops, 500 alarms and interlocks, and a phase sequencer. Spread along 27 km and under ionizing radiation, 15 000 cryogenic sensors and actuators are accessed through industrial field networks. We describe the main hardware and software components of the control system, their deployment and commissioning, together with the project organization, challenges faced, and solutions found.

The LHC optics is based in the extensive use of superconducting magnets covering 23 km inside the tunnel. The associated cryogenic system for keeping the magnets in nominal conditions is hence distributed all around the 27 km LHC tunnel and the cryogenic instrumentation submitted to the LHC radiation environment is composed of about 18’000 sensors and actuators. Radiation Tolerant (RadTol) electronics was designed and procured in order to keep the signals integrity against electromagnetic interference and to reduce cabling costs required in case of sending the analog signals into the 30 radiation protected areas. This paper presents the basic design, the qualification of the main RadTol components and the first operational results.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is a superconducting accelerator and proton-proton collider of circumference of 27 km, lying about 100 m underground. Its operation relies on 1232 superconducting dipoles with a field of 8.3 T and 392 superconducting quadrupoles with a field gradient of 223 T/m powered at 11.8 kA and operating in superfluid helium at 1.9 K. This paper describes the cryogenic instrumentation commissioning, the challenges and the project organization based on our 2.5 years experience.

The paper discusses the main constraints and boundary conditions and describes the baseline configuration of the International Linear Collider (ILC) cryogenic system. The cryogenic layout, architecture and the cooling principle are presented. The paper addresses a plan for study and development required to demonstrate and improve the performance, to reduce cost and to attain the desired reliability.

A 107-m long superconducting magnet string representing a full-cell of the LHC machine was designed for assembly and commissioning at CERN in order to validate the final design choices. This new facility, thereafter called Test String 2, and its cryogenic infrastructure cons ist of feed and return boxes coupled via transfer lines to a 6 kW @ 4.5 K refrigerator and to a low pressure pumping group, a separate cryogenic distribution line, an electrical feed box with HTS current leads, 2 quadrupole and 6 dipole prototype and pre-series superconducting magnets.

The first application of the CERN Unified Industrial Control system (UNICOS) has been developed for the 1.8 K refrigerator at point 1.8 in mid-2001. This paper presents the engineering methods used for application development, in order to reach the objectives of maintainability and reusability, in the context of a development done by an external consortium of engineering firms. It will also review the lessons learned during this first development and the improvements planned for the next applications.

This paper describes the cryogenic control system and associated instrumentation of the test facility for 3 pre-series units of the LHC Cryogenic Distribution Line. For each unit, the process automation is based on a Programmable Logic Con-troller implementing more than 30 closed control loops and handling alarms, in-terlocks and overall process management. More than 160 sensors and actuators are distributed over 150 m on a Profibus DP/PA network. Parameterization, cali-bration and diagnosis are remotely available through the bus. Considering the diversity, amount and geographical distribution of the instru-mentation involved, this is a representative approach to the cryogenic control system for CERN's next accelerator.

Since the end of 1994 we have been operating a prototype half-cell of the machine lattice, accumulating more than 10,000 hours at superfluid helium temperatures and recovering from 150, mainly provoke d, magnet resistive transitions. The system has confirmed the validity of the basic design choices of the LHC cryogenic system. Furthermore, extensive testing on the response of the system to current ramp and discharge, and to magnet resistive transition, has provided sufficient information to enable a simplification of the cryogenic scheme that fulfils the LHC requirements. We report on the cryog enic operation, testing and long-term behaviour of the LHC Test String during the last 4 years of operation.

For control and monitoring purposes, about 10,000 individually calibrated cryogenic temperature sensors will be installed along the 26.7 km LHC. In order to reduce maintenance constraints these sensor s should be as immune as possible to the high neutron fluence environment. For selecting the sensor to be used, a radiation hardness evaluation program at cryogenic conditions is being performed in an irradiation vault of the ISN SARA Cyclotron (Grenoble, France). The set-up is capable of simulating the whole life of a LHC thermometer: same total neutron dose (1015 n.cm-2), irradiation at low tempe rature (1.8 K) and thermal cycles. Bath temperature and sensor resistance are monitored on-line. This paper presents the latest results of this program.

The main reason for the shutdown was the installation of a tube containing a prototype auxiliary bus-bars cable. This tube runs in one of the beam tube apertures of the String from the front of MB1 to the rear of MB3 and is hydraulically connected to the cold mass of MB3. A ceramic leak tight feed-through was installed, for the first time in operational conditions, to route the signal wires for the temperature sensors and the voltage taps out of the 1.9 K helium bath. Leaks in the beam-screen capillary had prevented the connection of the beam screens to the cooling circuit. The opportunity of t his shutdown was taken to install a cryogenically cooled beam-screen in the other aperture of MB3. In addition, the calibration of temperature and positioning sensors took place. The SRB had to be re moved to install the long tube and the lines carrying cryogens had to be cut, therefore a pressure test and a leak test had to be carried-out.

As a continuation of the experimental program carried-out with String 1, project management decided toward the end of 1995 to construct an LHC prototype Full-Cell, also known as String 2. The present document reports on the outcome of the one-year design effort by the community of specialists contributing to the LHC Prototype Full-Cell: it informs specialists on the boundary areas with other syste ms and conveys to the general public a description of the facility.

The first version of the LHC prototype half-cell has been in operation since February 1995. It consists of one quadrupole and three 10-m twin aperture dipole magnets which operate at 1.8 K. This experimental set-up has been used to observe and study phenomena which appear when the systems are assembled in one unit and influence one another. The 18-month long experimental program has validated the cryogenic system and yielded a number of results on cryogenic instrumentation, magnet protection and vacuum in particular under non-standard operating conditions. The program was recently complemented by the cycling experiment: it consisted in powering the magnets following the ramp rates which will be experienced by the magnets during an LHC acceleration. In order to simulate 10 years of routine operation of LHC, more than 2000 1-hour cycles were performed interleaved with provoked quenches. The objective of this experiment was to reveal eventual flaws in the design of components. The prototype half-cell performed to expectations showing no sign of failure of fatigue of components for more than 2000 cycles until one of the dipoles started exhibiting an erratic quench behavior.