Lise Pauwels

Simulation of energy deposition from 440 GeV proton impact on superconducting coils at the CERN HiRadMat facility

Abstract

A thorough multi-stage experimental program is being carried out at the HiRadMat facility at CERN to study the detrimental effects of high-energy proton beams impact on superconducting wires and magnet coils. Simulation of those experiments by Monte Carlo methods are crucial to define energy deposition patterns and predict damage limit. Beam Delivery SIMulation (BDSIM) offers the possibility to evaluate beam energy loss and particle tracking in one program, making it a useful tool. Moreover, it enables to use complex geometries in the simulation by importing GDML-files. Therefore, a model was created using pyg4ometry and imported in BDSIM. Model coherence tests were run before placing the coil in a CERN designed experimental setup, because no experimental data are available for that particular experiment. The experimental setup is made of a row of five coils and two copper blocks placed on a stand. Results of the simulation show that the energy deposition is concentrated in and around the coils, which could lead to a quench of the magnet. This hypothesis is corroborated by the estimated temperature rise induced by particle showers with the coil. Additional damages such as deformation and mechanical stresses can also be inudced by the beam. Furthermore, the energy deposition increases along the row of coils. This can be explained by build-up of particle showers. Simulation results are discussed in detail and are shown to be consistent with independent FLUKA results.