Toward Integrated Design and Modeling of High Field Accelerator Magnets

The next generation of superconducting accelerator magnets will most likely use a brittle conductor (such as Nb₃Sn), generate fields around 18 T, handle forces that are 3-4 times higher than in the present LHC dipoles, and store energy that starts to make accelerator magnets look like fusion magnets. To meet the challenge and reduce the complexity, magnet design will have to be more innovative and better integrated. The recent design of several high field superconducting magnets have now benefited from the integration between CAD (e.g. ProE), magnetic analysis tools (e.g. TOSCA) and structural analysis tools (e.g. ANSYS). Not only it is now possible to address complex issues such as stress in magnet ends, but the analysis can be better detailed an extended into new areas previously too difficult to address. Integrated thermal, electrical and structural analysis can be followed from assembly and cool-down through excitation and quench propagation. In this paper we report on the integrated design approach, discuss analysis results and point out areas of future interest