Comparison of the Results of a Hydrodynamic Tunneling Experiment with Iterative FLUKA and BIG2 Simulations

In 2012, a novel experiment has been performed at the CERN HiRadMat facility to study the impact of a 440 GeV proton beam generated by the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), on extended solid copper cylindrical targets. Substantial hydrodynamic tunneling of the protons in the target material has been observed. Iterative FLUKA and BIG2 simulations with the parameters of the actual experiment have been performed. In this paper the results of these simulations will be discussed and compared to the experimental measurements. Furthermore, the implication on the machine protection design for high intensity hadron accelerators as the current LHC and the future High Luminosity LHC will be addressed.