This is interesting, unfortunately it is only the usual "no detail" gossip news report. Pointing the finger over the LHC breakdown.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 626728.ece
LHC Breakdown
http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-sci ... 2008-09-20
Here's the most recent one I remember: a helium leak in a transformer. According to this article, they should be wrapping up repairs around now.
Here's the most recent one I remember: a helium leak in a transformer. According to this article, they should be wrapping up repairs around now.
No problem. I'm not above slinging a little unwarranted invective occasionally. :-) A taste of my own medicine from time to time curbs the worst excesses. ;-)Aero wrote:So it is - April - I blame Google. I usually (almost always) put a date range on my searches for new information. Sorry Simon.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Some old pictures, and one new picture of the damage. (According to Google 
)
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn1 ... ggs-hunt/1
)http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn1 ... ggs-hunt/1
Aero
List of accidents at LHC lifted from Wikopedia.
'American made' (Ferilab) magnet design flaw found March 2007 was unrelated to this Fall's accident (I assume).
"Construction accidents and delays
On 25 October 2005, a technician was killed in the LHC tunnel when a crane load was accidentally dropped.[43]
On 27 March 2007 a cryogenic magnet support broke during a pressure test involving one of the LHC's inner triplet (focusing quadrupole) magnet assemblies, provided by Fermilab and KEK. No one was injured. Fermilab director Pier Oddone stated "In this case we are dumbfounded that we missed some very simple balance of forces". This fault had been present in the original design, and remained during four engineering reviews over the following years.[44] Analysis revealed that its design, made as thin as possible for better insulation, was not strong enough to withstand the forces generated during pressure testing. Details are available in a statement from Fermilab, with which CERN is in agreement.[45][46] Repairing the broken magnet and reinforcing the eight identical assemblies used by LHC delayed the startup date,[47] then planned for November 2007.
Wikinews has related news: CERN says repairs to LHC particle accelerator to cost US$21 million
Problems with a magnet quench on 19 September 2008 caused a leak of six tonnes of liquid helium, and delayed the operation for several months.[48] The LHC is expected to be restarted in summer 2009.[8][9] It is currently believed that a faulty electrical connection between two magnets ignited a spark, which compromised the liquid-helium cooling. Once the cooling layer was broken, the helium flooded the surrounding vacuum layer with sufficient force to break 10-ton magnets from their mountings. The explosion also contaminated the proton tubes with soot.[9][49]"
Dan Tibbets
'American made' (Ferilab) magnet design flaw found March 2007 was unrelated to this Fall's accident (I assume).
"Construction accidents and delays
On 25 October 2005, a technician was killed in the LHC tunnel when a crane load was accidentally dropped.[43]
On 27 March 2007 a cryogenic magnet support broke during a pressure test involving one of the LHC's inner triplet (focusing quadrupole) magnet assemblies, provided by Fermilab and KEK. No one was injured. Fermilab director Pier Oddone stated "In this case we are dumbfounded that we missed some very simple balance of forces". This fault had been present in the original design, and remained during four engineering reviews over the following years.[44] Analysis revealed that its design, made as thin as possible for better insulation, was not strong enough to withstand the forces generated during pressure testing. Details are available in a statement from Fermilab, with which CERN is in agreement.[45][46] Repairing the broken magnet and reinforcing the eight identical assemblies used by LHC delayed the startup date,[47] then planned for November 2007.
Wikinews has related news: CERN says repairs to LHC particle accelerator to cost US$21 million
Problems with a magnet quench on 19 September 2008 caused a leak of six tonnes of liquid helium, and delayed the operation for several months.[48] The LHC is expected to be restarted in summer 2009.[8][9] It is currently believed that a faulty electrical connection between two magnets ignited a spark, which compromised the liquid-helium cooling. Once the cooling layer was broken, the helium flooded the surrounding vacuum layer with sufficient force to break 10-ton magnets from their mountings. The explosion also contaminated the proton tubes with soot.[9][49]"
Dan Tibbets
To error is human... and I'm very human.