QUENCH CALCULATION SOFTWARE

FAIR - the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research is a new accelerator complex which is currently under construction in Darmstadt, Germany. Superconducting magnets are the key components of modern particle accelerators. A superconducting magnet is an elec- tromagnet in which the coils are wound from a superconducting cable instead of a classical copper cable. Superconducting materials are characterized by zero resistivity under given conditions of temperature, magnetic field induction and transport current. Rise in temperature of Super- conducting material results in increase in its resisivity. This change in material from super- conducting state to normal resistive state is termed as quenching. A development of a resistive zone during the operation of a superconducting machine may cause a temperature increase, over voltage and pressure raise in the cooling channels to the levels that exceeds the design limits. In that case a severe damage of the machine is expected. In order to properly design a superconducting magnet, quench cases shall be studied and analysed. Therefore detailed quench calculations are required. A special quench calculation tool dedicated to supercon- ducting magnets of FAIR was developed at GSI. The aim of this work is to optimise the code and to create an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) in SCILAB environment.