New high field and large-aperture quadrupole magnets for the low-beta inner triplets (Q1, Q2, Q3) have been built and tested as part of the high-luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). These new quadrupole magnets are based on Nb3Sn superconducting technology. The US Accelerator Upgrade Project (US-AUP) is producing the Q1 and Q3 Cryo-Assemblies: a pair of ∼ 5 m long magnet structures installed in a stainless-steel helium vessel (Cold Mass) and surrounded by cryostat shields, piping, and a vacuum vessel. This paper gives an overview of the design, production, and the results of the horizontal test of the first pre-series Q1/Q3 Cryo-Assembly.

Cryo-assemblies with the Nb 3 Sn MQXFA low-beta quadrupoles for the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade will be tested at Fermilab's magnet test facility. A total of 10 cryo-assemblies will be delivered to CERN within the US HL-LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP). The horizontal test stand at Fermilab already has been used for testing the existing LHC inner-triplet quadrupoles, but the stand and corresponding electrical and cryogenic sub-systems were not operational for more than a decade. In order to restore the test stand functions and meet the design and test requirements for the HL-LHC magnets, the existing horizontal test facility at Fermilab underwent a significant refurbishment of the cryogenic and mechanical components. Most of the upgrades were completed and verified during so called zero-magnet test by late 2020, and then final commissioning of the upgraded horizontal test stand was completed during the first cryo-assembly test in 2023. These tests verified the major cryo-mechanical installations, as well as the basic test stand operations, including controlled cooldown and operation at 1.9 K, magnet protection and process controls. Overview of the Fermilab's horizontal test facility upgrade and commissioning of these upgrades are presented in this paper.

The High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at CERN will include eight cryo-assemblies that are expected to be fabricated and delivered to CERN by the US HL-LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP) as part of the U.S. contributions to the HL-LHC. These cryostat assemblies are the quadrupole magnetic components of the HL-LHC Q1 and Q3 inner triplet optical elements in front of the two interaction points. Each cryo-assembly consists of two 4.2 m long Nb 3 Sn quadrupole magnets with aperture 150 mm and operating gradient 132.6 T/m. The first pre-series cryo-assembly has been fabricated and successfully tested at the horizontal test facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. In this manuscript we report the quench test results of the LQXFA/B-01 cryo-assembly. The primary objective of the horizontal test is full cryo-assembly qualification and validation of the performance requirements.

In early 2023, Fermilab is conducting horizontal cryogenic testing of the first Q1/Q3 Cryo-Assembly for the high-luminosity LHC upgrade (HL-LHC). The Cryo-Assembly was installed on the upgraded Fermilab horizontal test stand previously used for testing the LHC inner triplet quadrupoles. The cryogenic process requirements of this test include controlled cool-down and warm-up with a 100 K maximum temperature differential between the two ends of the cold mass, operation of a 1.3 bar, 1.9 K bath of subcooled superfluid helium during power testing and magnetic measurements, and operation at pressure up to 18 bar with full helium recovery after a quench.

For the HiLumi LHC Upgrade (HL-LHC), new high field and large-aperture quadrupole magnets for the low-beta inner triplets (Q1, Q2, Q3) are being built. These new quadrupole magnets are based on Nb 3 Sn superconducting technology. As part of the US-HiLumi Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP), ten Cryostat Assemblies (LQXFA) for Q1 and Q3 replacement will be built, tested, and delivered to CERN. The first LQXFA was assembled and tested at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) during fall 2022 and spring/summer 2023, respectively. This paper summarizes the assembly process and experience of the first LQXFA Cryostat Assembly at FNAL.

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the neutrinoless μ−→e− conversion in the field of an aluminum nucleus. The Mu2e data-taking plan assumes two running periods, Run I and Run II, separated by an approximately two-year-long shutdown. This paper presents an estimate of the expected Mu2e Run I search sensitivity and includes a detailed discussion of the background sources, uncertainties of their prediction, analysis procedures, and the optimization of the experimental sensitivity. The expected Run I 5σ discovery sensitivity is Rμe=1.2×10−15, with a total expected background of 0.11±0.03 events. In the absence of a signal, the expected upper limit is Rμe<6.2×10−16 at 90% CL. This represents a three order of magnitude improvement over the current experimental limit of Rμe<7×10−13 at 90% CL set by the SINDRUM II experiment.

The Fermilab horizontal test stand previously used for testing the LHC inner triplet quadrupoles has been upgraded to test cryo-assemblies for the high-luminosity LHC upgrade (HL-LHC). The test requirements of these new cryo-assemblies required additional capabilities of the test stand cryogenic system, including controlled cool-down and warm-up, helium recovery after a quench, and operation at higher pressures. Most of these upgrades were completed to support a zero-magnet test in late 2020, with the remainder of the upgrades completed to support the first pre-series cryo-assembly test in early 2022. An overview of the design and initial operating experience of the upgraded test stand cryogenic system and associated process controls system are presented in this paper.

The MQXFA quadrupoles have 150 mm aperture, 4.2 m magnetic length, nominal gradient of 132.2 T/m, and coil peak field of 11.3 T. They use Nb_3Sn conductor and a support structure made of segmented aluminum shells pre-loaded by using bladders and keys. This report presents the final design of the MQXFA quadrupole magnets.

Thesolenoid test facility at Fermilab was built using a large vacuum vessel for testing of conduction-cooled superconducting solenoid magnets, and was first used to determine the performance of the MICE coupling coil. The facilitywas modified recently to enable the testing of solenoid magnets for the muon-to-electron (Mu2e) experiment, which operates at much higher current than the coupling coil. One pair of low-current conduction-cooled copper and NbTi leads was replaced with two pairs of 10-kA high-temperature superconducting leads cooled by heat exchange with liquid nitrogen and liquid helium. The new design, with additional control and monitoring capability, also provides helium cooling of the superconducting magnet leads by conduction. A high current power supply with energy extraction was added, and several improvements to the quench protection and characterization system were made. Here, we present details of these changes and report on performance results from a test of the Mu2e prototype transport solenoid (TS) module. Progress on additional improvements in preparation for production TS module testing will be presented.

The Fermilab Mu2e experiment has been developed to search for evidence of charged lepton flavor violation through the direct conversion of muons into electrons. The transport solenoid is an s-shaped magnet that guides the muons from the source to the stopping target. It consists of 52 superconducting coils arranged in 27 coil modules. A full-size prototype coil module, with all the features of a typical module of the full assembly, was successfully manufactured by a collaboration between INFN-Genoa and Fermilab. The prototype contains two coils that can be powered independently. To validate the design, the magnet went through an extensive test campaign. Warm tests included magnetic measurements with a vibrating stretched wire and electrical and dimensional checks. The cold performance was evaluated by a series of power tests and temperature dependence and minimum quench energy studies.

The Muon-to-Electron conversion experiment, under development at Fermilab, utilizes a complex superconducting solenoid magnet system. Usage of high temperature superconductor (HTS) power leads and reliable superconducting bus system and splice joints are essential to the assuring safe, continuous and cost effective operation of the magnets. Left over HTS power leads from the Tevatron era combined with superconducting bus (made from aluminum-clad NbTi Rutherford cable) and three different types of splices were successfully tested in a single dewar test configuration up to 10150 A. In this paper we summarize the test results.

Thermo-acoustic oscillations are a commonly observed phenomenon in helium cryogenic systems, especially in tubes connecting hot and cold areas. The open ends of these tubes are connected to the lower temperature (typically at 4.5 K), and the closed ends of these tubes are connected to the high temperature (300 K). Cryogenic instrumentation installations provide ideal conditions for these oscillations to occur due to the steep temperature gradient along the tubing. These oscillations create errors in measurements as well as an undesirable heat load to the system. The work presented here develops engineering guidelines to design oscillation-free helium piping. This work also studies the effect of different piping inserts and shows how the proper geometrical combinations have to be chosen to avoid thermo-acoustic oscillations. The effect of an 80 K intercept is also studied and shows that thermooscillations can be dampened by placing the intercept at an appropriate location. The design of helium piping based on the present work is also verified with the experimental results available in open literature. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fermilab Vertical Test Stand-1 (VTS-1) has been in operation since 2007 for testing superconducting radio frequency (SCRF) cavities at 2 K. This test stand includes a heat exchanger consisting of a single layer; helically wound finned tube, upstream of the J-T valve. A finite difference thermal model has been developed in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) to study the thermal performance of this heat exchanger during refilling of the test stand. The model can predict heat exchanger performance under various other operating conditions and is therefore useful as a design tool for similar heat exchangers in other facilities. The present paper discusses the different operational modes of this heat exchanger and its thermal characteristics under these operational modes. Results of this model have been compared with experimental data gathered from the VTS-1 heat exchanger, and they are in good agreement with the present model. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The first coupling coil for the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) has been tested in a conduction-cooled environment at the Solenoid Test Facility at Fermilab. An overview of the thermal and mechanical performance of the magnet and the test stand during cool-down and power testing of the magnet is presented.

Large aperture superconducting solenoid magnets are needed for the production and capture of pions, which decay to create intense muon beams in future experiments to search for direct muon to electron conversion. The COMET experiment in Japan and the Mu2e experiment in the U.S. are jointly conducting research into the design of capture solenoid coils made from aluminum-stabilized NbTi superconductor that is cooled by conduction to a supply of liquid helium. A prototype coil of 1.3-m inner diameter, having four layers of eight turns each, has been wound with pure aluminum interlayer fins for the conduction cooling. The test coil includes two types of welded splices, two film heaters for quench studies, and extensive instrumentation to evaluate strain, temperature profiles, and coil voltages. Details of the cryogenic conduction cooling scheme, test systems design, and test program plans will be discussed.

A new test stand for testing large superconducting solenoid magnets at the Fermilab Central Helium Liquefier (CHL) has been designed, installed, and operated. This test stand is being used to test a coupling coil for the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE), and future uses include solenoids for the Fermilab mu 2e experiment. This paper describes the test stand design and operation including controlled cool-down and warm-up. Overviews of the process controls system and the quench management system are also included.

Testing superconducting solenoid with no iron flux return can be problematic for a magnet test facility due to the large magnetic fringe fields generated. These large external fields can interfere with the operation of equipment while precautions must be taken for personnel supporting the test. The magnetic forces between the solenoid under test and the external infrastructure must also be taken under consideration. A new test facility has been designed and built at Fermilab specifically for testing superconducting magnets with large external fringe fields. This paper discusses the test stand design, capabilities, and details of the instrumentation and controls with data from the first solenoid tested in this facility: the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) coupling coil.

Under Indian Institutions and Fermilab collaboration, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are jointly developing 2K Vertical Test Stand (VTS) cryostats for testing SCRF cavities at 2K. The VTS cryostat has been designed for a large testing aperture of 86.36 cm for testing of 325 MHz Spoke resonators, 650 MHz and 1.3 GHz multi-cell SCRF cavities for Fermilab's Project-X. Units will be installed at Fermilab and RRCAT and used to test cavities for Project-X. A VTS cryostat comprises of liquid helium (LHe) vessel with internal magnetic shield, top insert plate equipped with cavity support stand and radiation shield, liquid nitrogen (LN{sub 2}) shield and vacuum vessel with external magnetic shield. The engineering design and analysis of VTS cryostat has been carried out using ASME B&PV Code and Finite Element Analysis. Design of internal and external magnetic shields was performed to limit the magnetic field inside LHe vessel at the cavity surface <1 {micro}T. Thermal analysis for LN{sub 2} shield has been performed to check the effectiveness of LN{sub 2} cooling and for compliance with ASME piping code allowable stresses.

The Fermi lab Magnet Test Facility (MTF) and the Vertical Cavity Test Facility (VCTF), both located in Industrial Building 1 and serviced by a shared cryogenic infrastructure, provide cryogenic testing of superconducting magnets and superconducting radio-frequency cavities in support of programs such as the Tevatron, US-LHC, LARP, HINS, Project X, and the ILC. While MTF must continue to support a robust magnet test program, VCTF is expected to increase its cavity test throughput by a factor of five, reaching 250 cavity test cycles per year as cavity production ramps up. A cryogenic infrastructure upgrade program has been undertaken in preparation for meeting the challenge of this additional cavity test throughput. The cryogenic infrastructure improvements include dedicated ambient temperature vacuum pumps, a helium compressor, purification skids, and additional helium gas storage. This paper will elaborate on the goals of the upgrade program, the selected equipment, and foreseen integration and operations plans and issues.