Helium Recovery in the LHC Cryogenic System following Magnet Resistive Transitions

A resistive transition (quench) of the Large Hadron Collider magnets provokes the expulsion of helium from the magnet cryostats to the helium recovery system. A high-volume, vacuum-insulated recovery line connected to several uninsulated medium-pressure gas storage tanks, forms the main constituents of the system. Besides a dedicated hardware configuration, helium recovery also implies specific procedures that should follow a quench, in order to conserve the discharged helium and possibly make use of its refrigeration capability. The amount of energy transferred after a quench from the magnets to the helium leaving the cold mass has been estimated on the basis of experimental data. Based on these data, the helium thermodynamic state in the recovery system is calculated using a lumped parameter approach. The LHC magnet quenches are classified ina parametric way from their cryogenic consequences and procedures that should follow the quench are proposed.