AbstractAn investigation of the tensile mechanical properties of electron beam welded OFE copper and high-purity niobium sheets is presented. Specimens were deformed in tension at strain rates ranging from 10−3 to ~ 1600 s−1. The 0.2% yield stress and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the welded niobium specimens are similar to those of unwelded specimens at strain rates lower or equal to 20 s−1. At higher strain rates, these mechanical properties are lower for welded niobium specimens. The 0.2% yield stress of welded OFE copper specimens is consistently lower than unwelded specimens over the range of strain rates studied, while the UTS is comparable at all strain rates. The elongation to failure of welded OFE copper specimens remains unchanged at all strain rates while the ductility of niobium specimens reduces at strain rates greater or equal to 20 s−1 and reaches a minimum at ~ 400 s−1. The effects of the weld on a non-standardized short specimen geometry, developed for this study to obtain strain rates in the order of 103 s−1, are more pronounced for niobium due to large grain sizes (up to 1200 μm) in the fusion region. However, comparable strength and ductility trends, with respect to a standard specimen, were measured at low strain rates. The conservation of strength and the relatively high ductility of the welded sheets, especially for OFE copper, suggest that bent and electron beam welded tubes could be used for the fabrication of seamless superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities. These results are promising for the use of high-speed forming techniques, like electro-hydraulic forming, for the manufacturing of parts using welded tubes and sheets.

In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched, as an international collaboration hosted by CERN. This study covers a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee) and an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), which could, successively, be installed in the same 100 km tunnel. The scientific capabilities of the integrated FCC programme would serve the worldwide community throughout the 21st century. The FCC study also investigates an LHC energy upgrade, using FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the second volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the electron-positron collider FCC-ee. After summarizing the physics discovery opportunities, it presents the accelerator design, performance reach, a staged operation scenario, the underlying technologies, civil engineering, technical infrastructure, and an implementation plan. FCC-ee can be built with today’s technology. Most of the FCC-ee infrastructure could be reused for FCC-hh. Combining concepts from past and present lepton colliders and adding a few novel elements, the FCC-ee design promises outstandingly high luminosity. This will make the FCC-ee a unique precision instrument to study the heaviest known particles (Z, W and H bosons and the top quark), offering great direct and indirect sensitivity to new physics.

In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (EPPSU), the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched as a world-wide international collaboration hosted by CERN. The FCC study covered an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee), the corresponding 100 km tunnel infrastructure, as well as the physics opportunities of these two colliders, and a high-energy LHC, based on FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the third volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the hadron collider FCC-hh. It summarizes the FCC-hh physics discovery opportunities, presents the FCC-hh accelerator design, performance reach, and staged operation plan, discusses the underlying technologies, the civil engineering and technical infrastructure, and also sketches a possible implementation. Combining ingredients from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-luminosity LHC upgrade and adding novel technologies and approaches, the FCC-hh design aims at significantly extending the energy frontier to 100 TeV. Its unprecedented centre-of-mass collision energy will make the FCC-hh a unique instrument to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, offering great direct sensitivity to new physics and discoveries.