Thermo-mechanical modelling of high energy particle beam impacts

The unprecedented energy intensities of modern hadron accelerators yield special problems with the materials that are placed close to or into the high intensity beams. The energy stored in LHC in a single beam is equivalent to about 80 kg of TNT explosive, stored in a transverse beam area of 0.2 mm×0.2 mm. The materials placed close to the beam are used at, or even beyond, their damage limits. However, it is very difficult to predict structural efficiency and robustness accurately: beam-induced damage occurs in a regime where practical experience does not exist. This study is performed in order to estimate the damage on a copper component due to the impact with a 7 TeV proton beam generated by LHC. The case study represents an accidental case consequent to an abnormal release of the beam, in which 8 bunches irradiate the target directly. The energy delivered on the component is calculated using the FLUKA code and then used as input in the numerical simulations, that are carried out via the FEM code LS-DYNA. Different numerical models are realized trying to obtain the simplest model able to correctly describe the material response without affecting the goodness of the results.