Characterization of the beam scraping system of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron

The Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN is equipped with a scraping system for halo cleaning at beam transfer to the Large Hadron Collider. The system is composed of movable graphite blades mechanically swept through the beam to remove tails immediately before beam transfer. Due to the mechanical movement, beam particles are intercepted by a small volume of material with consequent concentration of energy deposition and high thermal loads. The blades were tested with beam to verify their resistance to the most extreme scraping conditions. Even though the beam was prematurely dumped by the beam loss monitoring system, the microstructural analysis of the blades following the test found signs of material sublimation. The test setup was reproduced in simulation to reconstruct the levels of energy deposition actually reached in the blades during the test; values are compatible with local material sublimation, in agreement with the microstructural analysis. Simulations were carried out by coupling the sixtrack tracking code, used for single particle beam dynamics in circular accelerators for high energy physics, to the fluka Monte Carlo code, for particle-matter interactions. The time evolution of the beam intensity measured during scraping and the distribution of losses around the ring were used for an extensive benchmark of the simulation tool against measurements taken during the test. This work presents the endurance test together with simulation results and the benchmark of the simulation tool. The quantitative agreement between simulations and measurements proves the quality of the analyses and the maturity of the simulation tool, which can be reliably used to predict the performance of cleaning systems in circular accelerators.