Designing Smaller Magnets for the Large Hadron Collider

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) requires new magnets that are smaller than their predecessors to accommodate new instrumentation. Because of their size, these magnets need to generate a 24 percent stronger magnetic field and the structure must provide for near-zero deformation of the conductor. Even a small deformation could increase the electrical resistance and raise the temperature enough to cause the conductor to lose its superconducting state. Engineers addressed this challenge using ANSYS electromagnetic, thermal, and structural simulation tools. Coupling the multiphysics domains in the ANSYS® Workbench® environment allowed the team to optimize the design by simultaneously considering all of the physics.