Construction of a 7-T force-balanced helical coil

Force-Balanced Coil (FBC) is a helically wound toroidal coil that can minimize the required mass of its structure by selecting an optimal number of poloidal turns per toroidal turn. A 7-T Force-Balanced Coil (7-T FBC) was designed in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the FBC concept for high field superconducting magnets. The 7-T FBC with an outer diameter of 0.53 m will have 270-kJ stored magnetic energy at maximum magnetic field of 7.0 T. This coil is a hand-made coil using NbTi superconductor. The maximum working stress of the 7-T FBC is lower than the elastic limit of the Cu matrix so that the 7-T FBC can be excited up to the rated magnetic field of 7.0 T without reinforcing materials for the NbTi strand. The winding form is made of aluminum alloy and slots are cut on its surface with the shape of the helical winding with a numerically controlled (NC) lathe. The experiments will be conducted with pool boiling liquid helium cooling in order to measure the quench properties of the 7-T FBC and evaluate the working stresses in the helical windings.