STRUCTURAL MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF SUPERCONDUCTING CH CAVITIES

The superconducting (sc) Crossbar-H-mode (CH) structure has been developedand tested successfully at the Institute for Applied Physics (IAP) of FrankfurtUniversity. It is a multi-gap drift tube cavity for the acceleration of protons and ions in the low and medium energy range based on the H211-mode. At present two types of superconducting CH structures (f = 325 MHz, β = 0.16, 7 cells and f = 217 MHz, β = 0.059, 15 cells) are under construction. For the geometrical design of superconducting cavities structural mechanical simulations are essential to predict mechanical eigenmodes and the deformation of the cavity walls due to bath pressure effects and the cavity cool-down. Therefore, several static structural and modal analyses with ANSYS Workbench have been performed. Additionally, a new concept for the dynamic frequency tuning including a novel type of a piezo based bellow tuner has been investigated to control the frequency against microphonics and Lorentz force detuning. MOTIVATION The mechanical requirementsfor superconductingstructures are strict to assure a stable operation of the cavity. Due to their thin walls superconducting cavities are very sensitive to external ascendancies, which lead to frequency changes in the range of several hundred kHz. Reasons of frequency variations include Lorentz Force Detuning, microphonics and fast bath pressure fluctuations during operation. To investigate the deformation of the cavity shape and consequential the frequency variations due to external forces the mechanical analysis is an important basic appliance. For all mechanical simulations of the sc CH cavity we use ANSYS Workbench to analyze the cavity deformation [1]. To control the frequency variations of prospective sc CH cavities during operation a novel tuning concept was worked out. Dynamic capacitive bellow tuners welded inside the cavity are provided reaching a tuning range of several hundred kHz to compensate the dynamic frequency shift. To analyze their mechanical behavior, several static structural simulations have been carried out where a bellow tuner model was exposed to a range of static forces.