Contribution of thermo-fluid analyses to the LHC experiments

The big amount of electrical and electronic equipment that will be installed in the four LHC experiments will cause important heat dissipation into the detectors’ volumes. This is a major issue for the experimental groups, as temperature stability is often a fundamental requirement for the different sub-detectors to be able to provide a good measurement quality. The thermofluid analyses that are carried out in the ST/CV group are a very efficient tool to understand and predict the thermal behaviour of the detectors. These studies are undertaken according to the needs of the experimental groups; they aim at evaluate the thermal stability for a proposed design, or to compare different technical solutions in order to choose the best one for the final design. The usual approach to carry out these studies is first presented and then, some practical examples of thermo-fluid analyses are presented focusing on the main results in order to illustrate their contribution.