A Large-scale Test Facility for Heat Load Measurements down to 1.9 K

Laboratory-scale tests aimed at minimizing the thermal loads of the LHC magnet cryostat have gone along with the development of the various mechanical components. For final validation of the industrial design with respect to heat inleaks between large surfaces at different temperatures, a full-scale test cryostat has been constructed. The facility reproduces the same pattern of temperature levels as the LHC dipole cryostat, avoiding the heat inleaks from local components like supports and feedthroughs and carefully minimizing fringe effects due to the truncated geometry of the facility with respect to the LHC cryostats serial layout. Thermal loads to the actively cooled radiation screen, operated between 50 K and 65 K, are measured by enthalpy difference along its length. At 1.9 K, the loads are obtained from the temperature difference across a superfluid helium exchanger. On the beam screen, the electrical power needed to stabilize the temperature at 20 K yields a direct reading of the heat losses. Precise in-situ calibration is achieved by subcooling the thermal screen, thereby zeroing radiative heat loads. Minimizing fringe effects has been rewarded by a high precision measurement, yielding one of the more accurate quantifications to date of an industrial application of MLI. The influence of possible openings in the thermal screen is monitored both at the 1.9 K bath and with a radiation sensitive bolometer.