Supporting systems from 293 K to 1.9 K for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryo-magnets

The LHC machine will incorporate some 2000 main ring super-conducting magnets cooled at 1.9 K by super-fuid pressurized helium, mainly 15m-long dipoles with their cryostats and 6m-long quadrupoles housed in the Short Straight Section (SSS) units. This paper presents the design of the support system of the LHC arc cryo-magnets between 1.9 K at the cold mass and 293 K at the cryostat vacuum vessel. The stringent positioning precision for magnet alignment and the high thermal performance for cryogenic efficiency are the main conflicting requirements, which have lead to a trade-off design. The systems retained for LHC are based on column-type supports positioned in the vertical plane of the magnets inside the cryostats. An ad-hoc design has been achieved both for cryo-dipoles and SSS.