Asynchronous Beam Dump Tests at LHC

The detailed understanding of the beam-loss pattern in case of an asynchronous beam dump is essential for the safe operation of the future High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) with nearly twice the nominal LHC beam intensity, leading to correspondingly higher energy deposition on the protection elements. An asynchronous beam dump is provoked when the rise time of the extraction kickers is not synchronized to the 3 us long particle-free abort gap. Thus, particles that are not absorbed by dedicated protection elements can be lost on the machine aperture. Since asynchronous beam dumps are among the most critical failure cases of the LHC, experimental tests at low intensity are performed routinely. This paper reviews recent asynchronous beam dump tests performed in the LHC. It describes the test conditions, discusses the beam-loss behaviour and presents simulation and measurement results. In particular, it examines a test event from May 2016, which led to the quench of four superconducting magnets in the extraction region and which was studied by a dedicated beam experiment in December 2017.