Magnetics Business & Technology - May/June 2020 - 21

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
to the enormous forces at work inside an accelerator magnet.
So the Fermilab team developed a magnet design that would
shore up the coil against every stress and strain it could
encounter during operation. Several dozen round wires were
twisted into cables in a certain way, enabling it to meet the
requisite electrical and mechanical specifications. These cables
were wound into coils and heat-treated at high temperatures
for approximately two weeks, with a peak temperature of about
1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, to convert the niobium-tin wires into
superconductor at operation temperatures. The team encased
several coils in a strong innovative structure composed of an
iron yoke with aluminum clamps and a stainless-steel skin to
stabilize the coils against the huge electromagnetic forces that
can deform the brittle coils, thus degrading the niobium-tin
wires.
The Fermilab group took every known design feature into consideration, and it paid off.
"This is a tremendous achievement in a key enabling technology for circular colliders beyond the LHC," said Soren Prestemon, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and director of the multilaboratory U.S. Magnet Development Program, which includes
the Fermilab team. "This is an exceptional milestone for the
international community that develops these magnets, and the
result has been enthusiastically received by researchers who
will use the beams from a future collider to push forward the
frontiers of high-energy physics."

And the Fermilab team is geared up to make their mark in the
15-tesla territory.
"There are so many variables to consider in designing a magnet
like this: the field parameters, superconducting wire and cable,
mechanical structure and its performance during assembly and
operation, magnet technology, and magnet protection during operation," Zlobin said. "All of these issues are even more
important for magnets with record parameters."
Over the next few months, the group plans to reinforce the coil's
mechanical support and then retest the magnet this fall. They
expect to achieve the 15-tesla design goal.
And they're setting their sights even higher for the future.
"Based on the success of this project and the lessons we
learned, we're planning to advance the field in niobium-tin magnets for future colliders to 17 teslas," Zlobin said.
It doesn't stop there. Zlobin says they may be able to design
steering magnets that reach a field of 20 teslas using special
inserts made of new advanced superconducting materials.
The project is supported by the Department of Energy Office of
Science. It is a key part of the U.S. Magnet Development Program, which includes Fermilab, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National
High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

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Magnetics Business & Technology - May/June 2020

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