Towards Optimum Material Choices for HL-LHC Collimator Upgrade

The first years of operation at the LHC showed that collimator material-related concerns might limit the performance. In addition, the HL-LHC upgrade will bring the accelerator beyond the nominal performance through more intense and brighter proton beams. A new generation of collimators based on advanced materials is needed to match present and new requirements. After several years of R&D on collimator materials, studying the behaviour of novel composites with properties that address different limitations of the present collimation system, solutions have been found to fulfil various upgrade challenges. This paper describes the proposed staged approach to deploy new materials in the upgraded HL-LHC collimation system. Beam tests at the CERN HiRadMat facility were also performed to benchmark simulation methods and constitutive material models.