Advanced Design of Tooling for Sheet-Metal Forming through Numerical Simulations in the Scope of SRF Crab Cavities at CERN

摘要

The installation of Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) Crab Cavities is one of the key upgrades in the framework of the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at CERN. These devices - built out of 4mm thick niobium sheets - are shaped into complex geometries entailing very tight tolerances, in order to comply with strict SRF requirements. Numerical simulations of the sheet metal forming processes are used to optimize the fabrication of these SRF cavities by assessing different shaping approaches and tooling. Results of thickness distribution and geometrical shapes obtained from simulations are explored for an advanced design of the tooling. The tooling yields optimized shapes respecting the rigorous demands from the RF design. The following contribution details the numerical model used, presents the procedure and outcome of an advanced modeling of tooling and evaluates fabricated pieces.