Quench Propagation Analysis in Adiabatic Superconducting Windings

The basic postulate of our quench simulation code, developed to analyze normal-zone propagation in adiabatic magnets, is that the code’s computation may be immensely simplified without sacrifice in accuracy by aggregating all thermal properties of the winding affecting normal-zone propagation into a single parameter of the transeverse quench velocity. In order to verify this postulate, a finite element method (FEM) analysis has been applied to solve the temporal and spatial evolution of temperature within a section of an adiabatic magnet winding. Agreement between the FEM results and those of the simulation code is excellent. The FEM is also an important tool for refining the code and developing a more accurate scaling law for the code. A test case is presented in which the refined code is used to analyze an adiabatic magnet previously studied experimentally.