Comparison of 1D, 2D and 3D quench onset simulations

Measured and simulated minimum quench energies (MQE) for short samples are doubtful when estimating disturbance tolerance of an impregnated superconducting magnet. If measurements are performed at liquid cryogen, the cooling provided by the cryogen causes MQE to be high. At a conduction-cooled system, the transverse heat conduction is neglected causing low MQE. Even though these conditions can be artificially brought closer to the ones in an impregnated magnet, it is difficult to estimate by short-sample measurement the MQE of a superconducting coil. These similar difficulties are present at simulations. On the other hand, 1D and 2D measurements and simulations can be used, e.g., to compare wires or consider effect of insulation layer thickness, but according to the results only in a rough quantitative way. In this paper, we compare MQE and normal zone propagation velocity simulations of an MgB(2) wire with ID, 2D and 3D finite element method models to focus on the different results given by the models employing different dimensions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.