Quench thresholds in operational superconducting magnets

Superconducting magnets exposed to intense primary proton beams in high energy physics applications are subject to potentially extreme heat deposition. The beam power density, its duration and spatial distribution, the current density in the superconductor and, potentially, in the normal metal substrate, as well as the construction and cooling details of the magnet, are all relevant parameters. We will discuss an extension of some earlier work in which 28.5 GeV/c proton beams with up to 50 k joules of energy were targeted upstream from a 4 m long, 4 T dipole magnet used to deflect the protons through an angle of 8°. Quench thresholds much greater than the enthalpy limit of the magnet materials were observed. In the beam exposure experiment described in this paper, intense beams of 1.5 GeV/c protons have been deflected directly into the magnet coil at relatively steep angles of incidence. The magnet quench threshold was studied by varying the beam currents and beam sizes.