Pressure drop test and analysis of Nb3Sn superconducting magnet

In order to test the performance of experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) central solenoid (CS) model coil, which was made by the cable-in-conduit conductor using Nb3Sn strands and a 316 L stainless steel jacket, a cryogenic experiment system was designed. The experimental results showed that the superconducting magnet was cooled down to 5 K, which could meet the test requirements successfully. Meanwhile, we measured the pressure drop in CICC of Nb3Sn superconducting magnet under the circulating mode of forced flow cooling which used supercritical helium as coolant compared with the result calculated by the Katheder fraction factor correlation, it showed that calculated pressure drop underestimates the experimental data. We corrected the Katheder correlation and compared with the experimental data, it proved that the corrected correlation is much more suitable for the kind of CICC of Nb3Sn superconducting magnet. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.