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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...

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Main Author: Lunt, Stuart
Other Authors: Boje, Edward
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: Department of Electrical Engineering 2025
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access_status_str Open Access
author Lunt, Stuart
author2 Boje, Edward
author_browse Boje, Edward
Lunt, Stuart
author_facet Boje, Edward
Lunt, Stuart
author_sort Lunt, Stuart
collection Thesis
description 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.
format Thesis
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language English
eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:25.395Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher Department of Electrical Engineering
publisherStr Department of Electrical Engineering
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41022 Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System Lunt, Stuart Boje, Edward Engineering 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. 2025-02-25T13:29:23Z 2025-02-25T13:29:23Z 2024 2025-02-25T13:24:44Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41022 en eng application/pdf Department of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Engineering
Lunt, Stuart
Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System
title_full Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System
title_fullStr Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System
title_full_unstemmed Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System
title_short Development of a CO2 Cooling Test Facility from the Vertex Locator Thermal Control System
title_sort development of a co2 cooling test facility from the vertex locator thermal control system
topic Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41022
work_keys_str_mv AT luntstuart developmentofaco2coolingtestfacilityfromthevertexlocatorthermalcontrolsystem