COUPLED TRANSIENT THERMAL AND ELECTROMAGNETIC FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION OF QUENCH IN SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETS

Coupled nonlinear transient thermal, electromagnetic and circuit models have been developed for the simulation of quench in superconducting magnets. Finite elements methods are used for the thermal and electromagnetic fields simulations. The simulations are closely coupled because the time constants of the heat sources for the thermal model are determined by the electromagnetic and circuit models. The strongly anisotropic thermal conductivity of typical superconducting coil structures and the highly non-linear material characteristics require a matching anisotropic mesh and adaptive time integration procedures.