Optimal cool-down time of a 4 K superconducting magnet cooled by a two-stage cryocooler

A cool-down time is one of the major factors in many cryocooler applications, especially for the design of conduction-cooled superconducting devices. Cool-down time means a time cooling a thermal mass from a room-temperature to cryogenic-temperature within a stipulated amount of time. The estimation of cool-down time seeks the elapsed time to cool the thermal object by a cryocooler during initial cool-down process. This procedure includes the dimension and properties of thermal object, heat transfer analysis for cryogenic load, thermal interface between cold mass and cryocooler, and available refrigeration capacity of cryocooler. The proposed method is applied to the specific cooling system for 3 T superconducting magnet cooled by a two-stage GM cryocooler. The result is compared with that of experiment, showing that proposed method has a good agreement with experiment. In addition, the initial cool-down time can be shortened by employing thermal link between the cold mass and first-stage of cryocooler. Through a rigorous modeling and analysis taking into account the effect of thermal link size, it is concluded that there exists an optimal cool-down time during initial cooling in conduction-cooled superconducting magnet system.

► The cool-down time of superconducting magnet is estimated by numerical analysis.
► The numerical result has a good agreement with that of experiment.
► Initial cool-down is shortened by thermal link between magnet and first cold-head.
► Shape ratio of thermal link is 4 to optimize initial cool-down time for a 5 T magnet.