Inductive quench for magnet protection

• US 7,701,677 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2006
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mevion Medical Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Still River Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Antaya, Timothy, Myatt, Leonard, Minervini, Joseph V., Bromberg, Leslie, Schultz, Joel Henry
• Primary Examiner(s): Jackson; Stephen W
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, DHARTI HARIDAS
• Application Number:
  US11/517,490
• Publication Number:
  US 20080062588A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,321 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 361/19
• CPC Class Codes: H01F 6/02 Quenching; Protection arrangements during quenching protection circuits H02H7/001
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 7/001 for superconducting apparatus, e.g. coils, lines, machines
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 60/20 Permanent superconducting devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/60 Superconducting electric elements or equipment; Power systems integrating superconducting elements or equipment

Abstract

A coil system for inductively heating a superconducting magnet in order to provide an internal energy dump by uniformly quenching a high performance superconducting magnet. The quench-inducing system uses AC magnetic fields that require negligible reactive power. The system is especially suited for inducing a relatively uniform quench in dry superconducting magnets.

Claims

1. A quench system for magnet protection comprising:

a DC superconducting coil; and

an AC coil system located in proximity to the DC superconducting coil to generate AC magnetic fields to heat the DC superconducting coil to cause a superconducting-to-normal transition over a substantial fraction of the DC superconducting coil.

2. The quench system of claim 1 wherein the DC superconducting coil and the AC coil system are arranged so that the mutual inductance between the DC superconducting coil and the AC coil is close to zero.

3. The quench system of claim 2 wherein magnetic fields of the DC superconducting coil and AC coil system are orthogonal to one another.

4. The quench system of claim 1 wherein the AC coil system includes a plurality of coils.

5. The quench system of claim 4 wherein the AC coil system is wound by interleaving loops or sets of an equal number of loops between the plurality of coils to decrease internal voltages generated in each coil.

6. The quench system of claim 4 wherein each coil in the AC coil system approaches zero mutual inductance with respect to the DC superconducting coil.

7. The quench system of claim 4 wherein the overall AC coil system approaches zero mutual inductance with respect to the DC coil, but each separate coil of the plurality of coils of the AC coil system has a finite mutual inductance with respect to the DC superconducting coil.

8. The quench system of claim 4 where the multiple zones quenched by the plurality of coils is a small fraction of the main magnet, with the quench propagated to the rest of the magnet through heating of the quenched zone by the decaying main stored energy, with a substantial decrease in the energy required to quench the magnet.

9. The quench system of claim 8 further including a high voltage insulation between the AC coil system and the DC superconducting coil.

10. The quench system of claim 1 further including an electrically conducting thermal blanket surrounding the DC superconducting coil, the thermal blanket including at least one gap to prevent induced currents in the thermal blanket from shielding AC magnet fields generated by the AC coil system from the DC superconducting coil.

11. The quench system of claim 1 wherein the frequency of the AC magnetic field is in the range of 100 Hz to 10 kHz.

12. The quench system of claim 1 wherein the magnitude of the AC magnetic field is in the range of 50 to 300 G.

13. The quench system of any of claims 1-12 where the main superconducting magnet is not strictly DC but operates at a frequency much lower than the AC quenching system.

14. The quench system of any of claims 1-12 where the main superconducting magnet is not strictly DC but operates with a pulse width that is much longer than the period of the AC quenching system.