Study of back quench in the superconducting coils of the barrel toroid of ATLAS due to losses during a "slow" discharge of the magnet

An analysis of the losses in the Al matrix of the conductor and in the casings where the superconducting coils are located, due to a "slow discharge" (heaters of the coils off) of the Barrel Toroid of ATLAS has been carried out. The values of the losses have been calculated and cross checked by means of different analytical and FE approaches, and simple relations have been carried out in order to correlate them with the main electrical parameters of the magnet. With a thermal analysis, the increase of temperature in the superconducting coils due to these extra losses has been calculated. The temperature margin (i.e. difference between current sharing temperature and operating temperature) has been calculated and compared with the temperature margin during the normal run of the magnet. (6 refs).