Study of passive and active protection system for the SSC [Superconducting Super Collider] R ampersand D dipole magnet

A comparative study of Passive versus Active Protection Systems is made using the computer programs SSC*, designed especially for this proposal. These programs track the quench evolution of each conductor independently, the axial quench velocity is given by a modified expression which correctly fits the experimental data, the phenomenological turn-to-turn transversal quench propagation is considered as an input parameter of the programs. The results of the simulations for a 40 mm dipole indicate that a single dipole is widely self-protected, which suggests that a Cold Diode Passive Protection System is a safe method to protect the magnet (no heaters are needed), and also that two or three magnets (Conceptual Design) will be a safe Active Protection System is the heater-time-delay to cause other quenching is sufficiently brief (τh < 50 ms). Assuming the same turn-to-turn quench propagation for the 50 mm SSC R ampersand D Dipole Magnet, the predictions for this magnet will have much lower axial quench velocity and the above results will be still valid for this new magnet. 10 refs., 30 figs