Beam-induced Quench Tests of LHC Magnets

At the end of the LHC Run1 a 48-hour quench-test campaign took place to investigate the quench levels of superconducting magnets for loss durations from nanoseconds to tens of seconds. The longitudinal losses produced extended from one meter to hundreds of meters and the number of lost protons varied from 10⁸ to 10¹³. The results of these and other, previously conducted quench experiments, allow the quench levels of several types of LHC magnets under various loss conditions to be assessed. The quench levels are expected to limit LHC performance in the case of steady-state losses in the interaction regions and also in the case of fast losses initiated by dust particles all around the ring. It is therefore required to accurately adjust beam loss abort thresholds in order to maximize the operation time. A detailed discussion of these quench test results and a proposal for additional tests after the LHC restart is presented.