Mechanical properties of the CMS conductor

CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) is a general-purpose detector designed to run at the highest luminosity at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Its distinctive features include a 4 T superconducting solenoid with 6 m diameter by 12.5 m long free bore, enclosed inside a 10000 ton return yoke. The magnetic field is achieved by a 4-layer superconducting solenoid made of a high purity aluminum (HPA) stabilized Rutherford type superconductor. The magnet is operated at 4.5 K, with a nominal current of 20 kA, for a total stored magnetic energy of 2.7 GJ. Due to the high magnetic forces at nominal field inside the winding pack, the structural component is the conductor itself to get a self-supporting winding structure. The mechanical reinforcement is made from aluminum alloy directly welded to the superconductor by electron beam (EB) welding technology before the winding operation. The external support cylinders also take part to the mechanical integrity. At each step of fabrication of the CMS conductor, the mechanical properties of the components and bonding between them are measured by destructive testing on short samples, in complement of continuous monitoring during production. This paper presents the results of the superconducting cable to pure aluminum shear testing, the tensile testing of the EN AW 6082 aluminum reinforcement, the insert to reinforcement shear testing, and the tensile testing of the full conductor before and after heat treatment induced during coil curing. Possible influence of the EB welding on the mechanical properties of the final conductor is investigated. Residual resistivity ratio (RRR) measurements of the HPA stabilizer are presented. Mechanical properties and equivalent RRR of the CMS conductor are presented for comparison with conductors of other geometry.