Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System

The Vertex Locator Thermal Control System (VTCS) was a mechanically pumped, evaporative CO2 cooling system developed for silicon strip detectors in the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Physics (CERN). This type of cooling has become increasingly...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lunt, Stuart
Other Authors: Boje, Edward
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: Department of Electrical Engineering 2025
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Vertex Locator Thermal Control System (VTCS) was a mechanically pumped, evaporative CO2 cooling system developed for silicon strip detectors in the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Physics (CERN). This type of cooling has become increasingly common in high-energy physics experiments, making their design and testing increasingly more important. The Detector Technologies (DT) group chose to reuse the hard ware from the VTCS after it was retired and convert it into a test facility for future detectors. This dissertation describes the analysis and redesign of the electrical, fluid and control systems which was undertaken to optimise the design for its new role and to bring it into line with current standards in the field. Alongside the hardware design, a model of the system was developed in Simulink, enabling the performance to be simulated with different hardware configurations and to assess its suitability for different applications. Delays in travel and procurement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow final construction and commissioning to be fully completed by the end of the project.