High Energy Physics Detector Construction Group - Overview

Full text: The tasks of the Group comprise the design and construction of mechanical structures and cooling systems applied in high energy physics experiments and accelerators. The design includes research and development, while the construction includes prototyping and tests. Since a few years the Group has been involved in works for the PHOBOS experiment at the already running Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL, as well as for the ALICE, ATLAS, and LHCb experiments at the future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. In case of the PHOBOS experiment, our Group played a leading role in the design and construction of mechanical structures, and a cooling system for all silicon detectors. Since July 2000 the PHOBOS apparatus is working well, collecting a lot of data. Results of the data analysis have been published in numerous papers. Research and development of new materials, such as carbon-carbon (C/C) composites is also carried out since 1993, in collaboration with the Department of Leptonic Interactions of our Institute, the department of Special Ceramics of the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Cracow and since 1998 also with CERN. The C/C composites have unique properties, such as low density and mean atomic number (resulting in high values of radiation and interaction lengths), resistance to high temperature and radiation. One group of these composites has excellent mechanical properties, e.g. Young's modulus and tensile strength significantly higher than those of steel. In the second group of C/C composites high thermal conductivity can be obtained (comparable to aluminium alloys and even to copper), however their mechanical properties are worse. These material features are particularly desirable in high energy physics experiments. The main achievements of the Group in the C/C composites area are as follows: * evaluation of a numerical method allowing the determination of the elasticity constants of the composite materials basing on known constants of carbon fibres and matrices, * evaluation of a comparative method allowing the determination of thermal conductivity in case the samples have non standard dimensions, * manufacturing of mechanical parts for series of furnaces used for carbonization and heat treatment of the C/C composites. Below are listed some results of our work carried out in Cracow, BNL or CERN together with the above-mentioned groups from our Institute and other collaborating institutions. (author)