On 12/30/2016 11:10 AM, Gene Heskett wrote: > > And I suppose the real schematic for that was top secret. No, this is a scientific research lab in the middle of a college campus, no secrets. But complexity? YIKES, they have it in spades. > > AIUI, that warmup also damaged some of the magnets. Too fast. Since the > cooldown had to be staged for the same reason, I assume they started > with GN2, then LN2 a week later, etc etc. Then as fast as they could, > evacuate the LN2 and switch to gaseous helium, gradually cooling it > until they got to liquid. They would I assume do some gas separation > with a big Cardox or similar to get rid of the residual nitrogen. A > complex process to be sure. > > No, they have the design of supercon magnets down to a science, so that they have few problems, nowadays. But, you DO have to avoid a quench, where the magnet is ramped up to field (and therefore contains enormous magnetic energy) when the temperature rises. So, they had to have a crew rush in and ramp the big magnets down before they warmed above the critical temperature. They did manage to do that.
It did take several weeks to get the whole facility cooled down again, after the leak was fixed and they obtained the amount of helium to restart. Enough egg on everybody's face to go around. Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
