Detection and location of electrical insulation faults on the LHC superconducting circuits during hardware commissioning

As part of the electrical quality assurance program (ELQA), the insulation of all superconducting circuits of the LHC has to be tested with a d.c. voltage of up to 1.9 kV. Fault location within a ± 3 m range over the total length of 2700 m has been achieved in order to limit the number of interconnection openings for repair. In this paper, the methods, tooling, and procedures for the detection and location of electrical faults will be presented in view of the practical experience gained in the LHC tunnel. Three particular cases of localized faults during LHC hardware commissioning will be discussed.