Construction of a 400 kJ-class pulsed superconducting magnet and its operating characteristics

A pulsed superconducting magnet with a stored energy of 375 kJ has been developed. The central field is 6 T at 2510 A. The conductor is a compacted strand cable which is composed of 23 strands. Each copper-stabilized filament in the strand is separated by a hexagonal cupronickel wall. The cable is not solder filled and thus not mechanically rigid. The winding inner and outer and axial length of the magnet are respectively 220 mm, 399 mm, and 345 mm. The magnet bobbin is made of epoxy glass-fiber material. The magnet was charged up to 2600 A after having experienced training three times. At that current the stored energy was about 402 kJ. The first quench occurred at 2460 A, a little lower current than the design current. In pulse operations, the magnet was successfully charged up to 6 T at a ramping rate of about 1.5 T/sec and up to 5.4 T at about 3.5 T/sec and discharged to zero at a ramping rate of about 3.1 T/sec without quenching. Noticeable evaporation of liquid helium due to ac losses did not occur. The faster ramping rates were limited by the power supply, not by the coil performance. During the charges, no major conductor motions were observed.