• L.J. Tavian
  CERN, Geneva

Following the incident on a LHC sector due to an electrical arc on the main dipole bus-bar circuit, post-mortem analysis of previous current plateaus has shown abnormal temperature drift in the helium II baths of some magnets in the concerned area. In order to identify other possible risky areas, a detection system based on calorimety using available precision cryogenic thermometers has been first validated by applying calibrated heating in the magnet cold-mass and then implemented in the different sectors. On the 3-km long continuous helium II cryostat of each LHC sector, this method allows detecting abnormal dissipations in the W-range , i.e. additional resistive heating due to abnormal resistance of about 20 nΩ at 7 kA and less than 10 nΩ at nominal current. The paper describes the principle and the methodology of this calorimetric method and gives the results obtained on the LHC sectors.