Thermal studies of a high gradient quadrupole magnet cooled with pressurized, stagnant superfluid

A 2-m long superconducting model of an LHC Interaction Region quadrupole magnet was wound with stabrite coated cable. The resulting low interstrand resistance and high AC losses presented the opportunity to measure magnet quench performance in superfluid as a function of helium temperature and heat deposition in the coil. Our motivation was to duplicate the high radiation heat loads predicted for the inner triplet quadrupoles at LHC and study the coil cooling conditions in the magnet. At the Magnet Test Facility in Fermilab's Technical Division, the magnet quench performance was tested as a function of bulk helium temperature and current ramp rate near the planned high luminosity interaction region field gradient of 205 T/m. AC loss measurements provided a correlation between current ramp rate and heat deposition in the coil. Analysis indicates that the results are consistent with there being little participation of superfluid helium in the small channels inside the inner layer in the heat removal from the coil. However magnet performance will be limited by the outer coil pole turn in LHC at a current level well above the operating current.