The “Warm Powering” work package (WP6B) is in charge of the development, design, engineering, construction and test of power converters (and auxiliary equipment) required for the powering of HL-LHC circuits in IR1 and IR5 as well as for the implementation of the R2E (Radiation to Electronics) consolidation of LHC power converters during LS3.
The new circuits comprised in the High Luminosity upgrade include the Inner Triplet and Matching Section regions of IR1 and IR5. 25 circuits on each side of the two interaction points for a total of 100 new operational power converters with ratings ranging from 60 A to 18 kA will be required for installation in the existing LHC and new HL-LHC underground galleries. WP6B also takes charge of matched disconnection equipment to be installed in the URs, as well as of the water-cooled busbars for the circuits with rated current greater or equal to 14 kA, to fully comply with electrical safety standards and to improve the effectiveness of periodic electrical quality test campaigns.
To achieve the targeted beam performance and dynamics, the HL-LHC power converters are requested to guarantee improved performance with respect to the ones currently used in the LHC, including a further performance increase of the eight existing LHC main dipole power converters. Along with unprecedented precision, the HL-LHC power converters will also assure very high availability in order to maximize the overall machine efficiency. Considering power converters as composed of three major functional subsystems: power, measurement and control, the high-availability goal will be achieved by means of high-reliability electronics for the control subsystem and modular designs implementing an ‘n+1 redundancy’ scheme for the power modules and measurement devices. The new power converters involved in the R2E consolidation during LS3 (a few hundreds) will also benefit from this high-availability design.
An intermediate, fundamental milestone for the R&D phase of WP6B is the delivery of the required powering equipment for the IT String (WP16) by means of, mostly, advanced prototypes and pre-series of the new power converters equipped with paired circuit disconnectors (and water-cooled busbars for the higher currents circuits).
The WPL and deputy are charged with the coordination of the efforts within the work package and ensure in conjunction with the HL-LHC project office the progress reporting as well as the documentation and implementation of scope, cost or schedule changes.