Lumped element modelling of superconducting circuits with SPICE

In this project research is carried out aimed at benchmarking a general-purpose circuit simulation software tool (”SPICE”). The project lasted for 8 weeks, from 29 June 2015 until 21 August 2015 at Performance Evaluation section at CERN. The goal was to apply it on a model of superconducting magnets, namely the main dipole circuit (RB circuit) of the the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), developed by members of the section. Then the strengths and the flaws of the tool were investigated. Transient effects were the main simulation focus point. In the first stage a simplified RB circuit was modelled in SPICE based on subcircuits. The first results were promising but still not with a perfect agreement. After implementing more detailed subcircuits there is an improvement and promising agreement achieved between SPICE and the results of the paper (PSpice) [2]. In general there are more strengths than drawbacks of simulating with SPICE. For example, it should have a shorter simulation time than PSpice for the same models, better possibilities foresigning/developing/distributing circuits and is simple, powerful and robust. Therefore one can say that SPICE proved to be a valuable tool in simulating electrical circuits while applying it on the RB circuit.