Thermo-hydraulic Quench Propagation at the LHC Superconducting Magnet String

The superconducting magnets of the LHC are protected by heaters and cold by-pass diodes. If a magnet quenches, the heaters on this magnet are fired and the magnet chain is de-excited in about two minu tes by opening dump switches in parallel to a resistor. During the time required for the discharge, adjacent magnets might quench due to thermo-hydraulic propagation in the helium bath and/or heat con duction via the bus bar. The number of quenching magnets depends on the mechanisms for the propagation. In this paper we report on quench propagation experiments from a dipole magnet to an adjacent ma gnet. The mechanism for the propagation is hot helium gas expelled from the first quenching magnet. The propagation changes with the pressure opening settings of the quench relief valves.