Cryocooled Facilities for Superconducting Coils Testing in Gaseous Helium

Two superconducting coil test facilities equipped by Sumitomo SRDK-415D cryocoolers were developed, manufactured and tested. The motivation for their constructing was to make cheaper the testing (and especially training of LTS magnets) by liquid helium (LHe) saving. It is well known that the helium price increases rapidly and this tendency most probably will continue for a long time, as the demand of helium grows faster than its production. The utilization of heat-exchange gas considerably reduces many problems, that arise in the design of completely dry LTS magnets. The goal was to decrease or even completely avoid the consumption of rather expensive liquid helium for testing the laboratory size Nb-Ti and Nb3Sn coils including their training process. Several superconducting magnets were tested by using these facilities. For example, the first facility was successfully used for testing of 13 T, 60 kg coil cooled by cryocooler in helium gas (several torr pressure) heat exchange atmosphere. The precooling time was about 45 hours. The quench current (240 A at 4.2 K) was equal to that reached in the pool boiling LHe cryostat. The second facility with 420 mm wide access bore can be used for testing of corresponding size superconducting coils with very modest consumption of liquid helium with its level well below the lower flange of the coil. Each test facility is equipped by 2 pairs of HTS current leads. Design and operational experience of one of them is described.