Thermal Shock Induced by a 24 GeV Proton Beam in the Test Windows of the Muon Collider Experiment E951 - Test Results and Theoretical Predictions

The need for intense muon beams for muon colliders and neutrino factories has lead to a concept of a high performance target station in which a 1-4 MW proton beam of 6-24 GeV impinges on a target inside a high field solenoid channel. While novel technical issues exist regarding the survivability of the target itself, the need to pass the tightly focused proton beam through beam windows poses additional concerns. In this paper, issues associated with the interaction of a proton beam with window structures designed for the muon targetry experiment E951 at BNL are explored. Specifically, a 24 GeV proton beam up to 16 x 10 12 per pulse and a pulse length of approximately 100 ns is expected to be tightly focused (to 0.5 mm rms one sigma radius) on an experimental target. Such beam will induce very high thermal, quasi-static and shock stresses in the window structure that exceed the strength of most common materials. In this effort, a detailed assessment of the thermal/shock response of beam windows is attempted with a goal of identifying the best window material candidate. Further, experimental strain results and comparison with the predicted values are presented and discussed.