Quench Protection Study of the Updated MQXF for the LHC Luminosity Upgrade (HiLumi LHC)

In 2023, the LHC luminosity will be increased, aiming at reaching 3000 fb-1 integrated over ten years. To obtain this target, new Nb3Sn low-β quadrupoles (MQXF) have been designed for the interaction regions. These magnets present a very large aperture (150 mm, to be compared with the 70 mm of the present NbTi quadrupoles) and a very large stored energy density (120 MJ/m³). For these reasons, quench protection is one of the most challenging aspects of the design of these magnets. In fact, protection studies of a previous design showed that the simulated hot spot temperature was very close to the maximum allowed limit of 350 K; this challenge motivated improvements in the current discharge modeling, taking into account the so-called dynamic effects on the apparent magnet inductance. Moreover, quench heaters design has been studied to be going into more details. In this paper, a protection study of the updated MQXF is presented, benefitting from the experience gained by studying the previous design. A study of the voltages between turns in the magnet is also presented during both normal operation and most important failure scenarios.