Automated lumped-element simulation framework for modelling of transient effects in superconducting magnets

Abstract: The paper describes a flexible, extensible, and user-friendly framework to model electrothermal transients occurring in superconducting magnets. Simulations are a fundamental tool for assessing the performance of a magnet and its protection system against the effects of a sudden transition from the superconducting to the normal state (also known as a quench). The application has a scalable and modular architecture based on the object-oriented programming paradigm, which opens an easy way for future extensions. Models are composed of thousands of lumped-element blocks automatically created in MATLAB&Simulink.; Additionally, it is possible to run sets of simulations with varying parameters and model structure. Due to its flexibility the framework has been used to simulate various protection and magnet configurations. The experimental results were in a very good agreement with simulations.