Paschen Testing on W7-X Coils and Components in the BNN Test Facility

Author

Scheller, Holger ; Langenberg, Hans-Peter ; Kühnberg, Michael ; Baldzuhn, Jürgen ; Petersen-Zarling, Boy ; Gustke, Dirk ; Fillunger, Harald

Author_Institution

Babcock Noell Nucl. GmbH, Wurzburg

Volume

16

Issue

2

fYear

2006

fDate

6/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

759

Lastpage

762

Abstract

During the fabrication of the coils for the Wendelstein 7-X experiment the need for pressure dependent high voltage testing-Paschen tests-of the coils and components arose. These tests ensure the safety of the coils in case of an emergency shutdown due to a break in the vacuum of the cryostat. For that purpose the vacuum test facility at Babcock Noell Nuclear was modified in order to perform these tests. It is now possible to test coils and their components up to 17 kV and for pressures below 1.0middot10^-3 mbar. Completed coils, winding packs before insertion in the case and also several components have been tested up to now. It has been demonstrated that these Paschen tests are a powerful tool to detect insulation defects. The paper shows the effort which has been taken to set up the test facilities. It will show the preparation of the components under testing as well as present and discuss the results obtained up to now

Keywords

cryostats; discharges (electric); fusion reactor safety; materials testing; stellarators; superconducting coils; BNN test facility; Babcock Noell Nuclear; Paschen testing; W7-X coils; W7-X components; Wendelstein 7-X experiment; coil fabrication; cryostat; emergency shutdown; gas discharges; insulation defect detection; pressure dependent high voltage testing; vacuum test facility; winding; Fabrication; Helium; Insulation; Performance evaluation; Plasma confinement; Superconducting coils; Superconducting magnets; Test facilities; Testing; Voltage; Gas discharges; Wendelstein 7-X; insulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1051-8223

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TASC.2006.870537

Filename

1642958