Measurement of ac electrical characteristics of SSC dipole magnets at Brookhaven

The SSC collider is designed to have circumference of 87 km. The superconducting magnets along the collider ring are grouped into ten sectors. Each sector, a string of average length of 8.7 km,m is powered by one power source located near the center of the sector. Because of the alternating-current (ac) electrical characteristics of the magnets, the power supply ripple currents and transients form a time and space distribution in the magnet string which affects particle motions. Additionally, since the power supply load is a magnet string, the current regulation loop design is highly dependent upon the ac electrical characteristics of the magnets. A means is needed to accurately determine the ac electrical characteristics of the superconducting magnets. The ac characteristics of magnets will be used to predict the ripple distribution of the long string of superconducting magnets. Magnet ac characteristics can also provide necessary information for the regulation loop design. This paper presents a method for measuring the ac characteristics of superconducting magnets. Two collider dipole magnets, one superconducting and one at room temperature, were tested at Brookhaven National Lab