The LHC Cryogenic System and Operational Experience from the First Three Years Run

抄録

The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) accelerator helium cryogenic system consists of eight cryogenically independent sectors, each 3.3 km long, all cooled and operated at 1.9 K. The overall, entropy equivalent, installed cryogenic capacity totalizes 144 kW @ 4.5 K including 19.2 kW @ 1.8 K with an associated helium inventory of 130 ton. The LHC cryogenic system is considered among the most complex and powerful in the world allowing the cooling down to superfluid helium temperature of 1.9 K. of the accelerators' high field superconducting magnets distributed over the 26.7 km underground ring. The present article describes the LHC cryogenic system and its associated cryogen infrastructure. Operational experience, including cryogen management, acquired from the first three years of LHC operation is finally presented.