Modeling of Coil Pre-stress Loss During Cool-down in the Main Dipoles of the Large Hadron Collider

We describe a finite element mechanical model of the main LHC dipole, based on the geometry and on the properties of its components; coil characteristics are derived from measurements on stacks of conductors. We show how to define equivalent properties of cable blocks that take into account the collaring procedure when it is not explicitly modelled. Numerical results are then compared to experimental measurements of loads and deformations in dipole prototypes. At cryogenic temperature, equivalent properties are used to implement in the model a pressure- dependent thermal contraction factor observed in stack measurements. This allows to forecast the large pre-stress loss during the cool-down observed in the LHC dipole prototypes.