Test results of the US-LCT pool-boiling coils in the International Fusion Superconducting Magnet Test Facility (IFSMTF)

The international Large Coil Task (LCT) designed, built, and successfully tested six different toroidal-field coils. Included in the torus are two pool-boiling coils designed and fabricated by US firms, General Dynamics/Convair Division (GD) and General Electric/Oak Ridge National Laboratory (GE). Both coils were instrumented for studies of electromagnetic, mechanical and thermodynamic properties and performed well and met design specifications. The authors summarize the complete test results, including the extended-condition test in which both coils demonstrated capability for operation beyond design points. The highlights of all major experiments since April 1987 that involved the GD or GE coils are presented in tabular form. In the extended-condition tests, both coils operated stably at 100% design current and above 9 T, even with bath temperature higher than 4.3 K. The mechanical behavior of both coils was generally in good agreement with calculations. Both coils were also safely discharged several times in the extended-condition tests. All results indicate that the technology developed for these two pool-boiling LCT coils can be directly applied for future large-scale applications.