Quasi-3D Thermal Simulation of Quench Propagation in Superconducting Magnets

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quasi-3D thermal simulation method for quench propagation in superconducting magnets, combining 2D FEM and 1D spectral methods to improve efficiency and accuracy over traditional 3D simulations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel Q3D approach that efficiently models quench propagation by integrating 2D and 1D methods, validated against conventional 3D simulations.

Findings

Q3D approach is more computationally efficient than 3D FEM.

Q3D method accurately captures quench phenomena.

Validated against commercial software simulations.

Abstract

To deal with the multi-scale nature of the quench propagation problem in superconducting magnets, this work presents a quasi-three-dimensional (Q3D) approach combining a two-dimensional finite-element method (FEM) in the transversal cross-section of the magnet for resolving the geometrical details, with a one-dimensional spectral-element method based on orthogonal polynomials in longitudinal direction for accurately and efficiently representing the quench phenomena. The Q3D formulation is elaborated and the idea is illustrated on a thermal benchmark problem. Finally, the method is validated against a conventional 3D simulation carried out by a commercial software. In terms of computational efficiency, it is shown that the proposed Q3D approach is superior to the conventional 3D FEM.