Reliability Analysis of the HL-LHC Energy Extraction System

The energy extraction systems for the protection of the new HL-LHC superconducting magnet circuits are based on vacuum breakers. This technology allows to significantly reduce the switch opening time and increases the overall system reliability with reduced maintenance needs. This paper presents the results of detailed reliability studies performed on these new energy extraction systems. The study quantifies the risk of a failure which prevents correct protection of a magnet circuit and identifies the most critical components of the system. For this, the model considers factors such as block or component level failure probabilities, different maintenance strategies and repair procedures. The reliability simulations have been performed with AvailSim4, a novel Monte Carlo code for availability and reliability simulations. The results are compared with the system reliability requirements and provides insights into the most critical components.