THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE PULSED MAGNETS AT THE KATHOLIEKE-UNIVERSITEIT-LEUVEN

Coils for pulsed magnets in the 50-100 T range are developed with optimized combinations of conductor and reinforcement. The basic design tool is a series of PC codes calculating the capacitor discharge, conductor heating, mechanical stress and residual stresses from plastic deformation and winding tension. Equipment includes a coil winding machine which permits the controlled insertion of layers of fibre rovings between windings and around wires, an installation for flow-through vacuum impregnation at controlled temperatures, and a 1 MJ capacitor bank with diode crowbar. The diagnostics for coil testing includes multi-channel digital recorders and instrumentation for calibration of the field measurement by means of far infrared resonances, and for the precise measurement of resistance and inductance which is used to monitor the irreversible deformation of the coil in a series of test pulses.