Multiphysics Analysis for Thermal Management of a 3 MeV, 325 MHz Radio Frequency Quadrupole Accelerator for Indian Spallation Neutron Source

Abstract

We present multiphysics design studies for thermal management of a 325 MHz 3 MeV Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) structure for the front end of 1 GeV proton linac for proposed Indian Spallation Neutron Source (ISNS). Physics design of RFQ for ISNS application has been carried out for 10% (maximum) duty factor. During high power operation of RFQ, RF-induced heating would result in temperature rise, thermal deformations and frequency shift of RFQ from designed values. Therefore thermal management is one of the important design considerations for RFQ development. During design studies, electromagnetic analysis of RFQ cavity is performed to compute RF induced heat fluxes on RFQ surfaces using SUPERFISH and ANSYS software. Simulated results for both codes were compared and found in well agreement. A water cooling scheme has been designed to absorb RF induced heat from RFQ structure. Cooling parameters are optimized by employing univariate search method optimization technique. An RF-Thermal-Structural-RF coupled multi-physics analysis methodology is developed to evaluate thermal induced frequency detuning of ISNS RFQ structure. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effect of cooling water temperatures on RFQ frequency. Based on analysis results, cooling water temperatures are varied to restore RFQ frequency to designed values. Thus, water cooling will not only remove heat from structure, but it will also be used for online control of resonating frequency during steady state operation of RFQ structure. Results of numerical studies carried out for thermal management of ISNS RFQ are presented in this paper.