Contribution to the design of superconducting Nb3Sn dipole windings for particle accelerator

Improvement of particle accelerators relies on complex technologies such as the design and fabrication of superconducting magnets. A key parameter in magnet design is the mechanical pre-stress, applied at room temperature to insure compression of the coil during excitation. In dipole magnets, high field and high mechanical stresses in windings combined with the Nb3Sn stress sensitivity ask the question of the limit of the mechanical stress that the Nb3Sn can undergo without degradation. This limit estimated around 150 MPa is still discussed and has to be investigated. Whatever its value, preliminary studies show that conventional cosine theta design induces mechanical stresses (> 200 MPa) in large aperture (> 130 mm) and high field configurations, which underscore the need of alternative coil arrangements. The first part of this thesis gives an introduction to the issues and challenges encountered by the designers of superconducting ma nets. The second part is devoted to the study of large aperture (88, 130 and 160 mm) and high field (13 T) dipoles based on intersecting ellipses. After a theoretical study, a 2D magnetic design is detailed for each aperture and a mechanical study is developed for the 130 mm aperture dipole. In the last part, an experimental device dedicated to the study of the influence of the pre-stress on the training of sub-scale Nb3Sn dipole and to the investigation of the mechanical stress limit is presented. The design of this magnet is detailed and the result of the first test carried out with the structure is reported. (author)