Conceptual Design of a New Sample Holder for the FRESCA Cable Test Station

At present Nb₃Sn Rutherford Cables seem to be the most suitable conductors for next generation superconducting accelerator magnets. These magnets will have a peak field in the coils larger than 10 T and the large Lorentz forces will impose coil pre-stresses significantly larger than 100 MPa. Since Nb₃Sn is strongly sensitive to strain it is mandatory to characterize the cable under a transverse pressure comparable to the one experienced in future magnets. As a part of its High Field Magnet program, CERN is developing a sample holder for the FRESCA Facility that allows testing 10 mm wide superconducting Rutherford cables under a transverse pressure up to 200 MPa. The sample holder will be able to house cables up to 20 mm wide. In this paper the conceptual design is presented together with the experimental results of the mechanical test performed on a 40 cm long model. The results show that the structure can apply a transverse pressure larger than 200 MPa on 10 mm wide cables with sufficiently high pressure homogeneity.