Beam Dump Facility Target: Design Status and Beam Tests in 2018

The Beam Dump Facility (BDF) Project, currently in its design phase, is a proposed general-purpose fixed target facility at CERN, dedicated to the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment in its initial phase. At the core of the installation resides the target/dump assembly, whose aim is to fully absorb the high intensity 400 GeV/c SPS beam and produce charmed mesons. In addition to high thermo-mechanical loads, the most challenging aspects of the proposed installation lie in very high energy and power density deposition that are reached during operation. In order to validate the design of the BDF target, a scaled prototype is going to be tested during 2018 in the North Area at CERN, upstream the existing beryllium primary targets. The prototype testing under representative beam scenarios will allow having an insight of the material response in an unprecedented regime. Online monitoring and an extensive Post Irradiation Experimental (PIE) campaign are foreseen. The current contribution will detail the design of the BDF target/dump core as well as the design and construction of the prototype target assembly.