<p>The topic of this thesis concerns the LHC, the next large particle accelerator at CERN which will start operating in 2007. Being based on superconductivity, the LHC needs to operate at very low temperatures, which makes great demands on the cryogenic system of the accelerator. To cope with the heat loads induced by the particle beam, a beam screen cooled with forced flow of supercritical helium is used.</p><p>There is an interest in upgrading the energy and luminosity of the LHC in the future and this would require a higher heat load to be extracted by the beam screen cooling system. The objective of this thesis is to quantify different ways to upgrade this system by mainly studying the effects of different pressure and temperatures levels as well as a different cooling medium, neon.</p><p>For this a numerical program which simulates one-dimensional pipe flow was constructed. The frictional forces were accounted for by the empirical concept of friction factor. For the fluid properties, software using empirically made correlations was used. To validate the numerical program, a comparison with previous experimental work was done. The agreement with experimental data was good for certain flow configurations, worse for others. From this it was concluded that further comparisons with experimental data must be made in order to tell the accuracy of the mathematical model and the correlations for fluid properties used.</p><p>When using supercritical helium, thermo-hydraulic instabilities may arise in the cooling loop. It was of special interest to see how well a numerical program could simulate and predict this phenomenon. It was found that the numerical program did not function for such unstable conditions; in fact it was much more sensitive than what reality is.</p><p>For the beam screen cooling system we conclude that to cope with the increased heat loads of future upgrades, an increase in pressure level is needed regardless if the coolant remains helium, or is changed to neon. Increasing the pressure level also makes that the problems with thermo-hydraulic instabilities can be avoided. Of the two coolants, helium gave the best heat extraction capacity. Unlike neon, it is also possible to keep the present temperature level when using helium.</p>

The topic of this thesis concerns the LHC, the next large particle accelerator at CERN which will start operating in 2007. Being based on superconductivity, the LHC needs to operate at very low temperatures, which makes great demands on the cryogenic system of the accelerator. To cope with the heat loads induced by the particle beam, a beam screen cooled with forced flow of supercritical helium is used. There is an interest in upgrading the energy and luminosity of the LHC in the future and this would require a higher heat load to be extracted by the beam screen cooling system. The objective of this thesis is to quantify different ways to upgrade this system by mainly studying the effects of different pressure and temperatures levels as well as a different cooling medium, neon. For this a numerical program which simulates one-dimensional pipe flow was constructed. The frictional forces were accounted for by the empirical concept of friction factor. For the fluid properties, software using empirically made correlations was used. To validate the numerical program, a comparison with previous experimental work was done. The agreement with experimental data was good for certain flow configurations, worse for others. From this it was concluded that further comparisons with experimental data must be made in order to tell the accuracy of the mathematical model and the correlations for fluid properties used. When using supercritical helium, thermo-hydraulic instabilities may arise in the cooling loop. It was of special interest to see how well a numerical program could simulate and predict this phenomenon. It was found that the numerical program did not function for such unstable conditions; in fact it was much more sensitive than what reality is. For the beam screen cooling system we conclude that to cope with the increased heat loads of future upgrades, an increase in pressure level is needed regardless if the coolant remains helium, or is changed to neon. Increasing the pressure level also makes that the problems with thermo-hydraulic instabilities can be avoided. Of the two coolants, helium gave the best heat extraction capacity. Unlike neon, it is also possible to keep the present temperature level when using helium.