The 'Multimat' Experiment at CERN HiRadMat Facility: Advanced Testing of Novel Materials and Instrumentation for HL-LHC Collimators

The increase of the stored beam energy in future particle accelerators, such as the HL-LHC and the FCC, calls for a radical upgrade in the design, materials and instrumentation of Beam InterceptingDevices (BID), such as collimatorsFollowing successful tests in 2015 that validated new composite materials and a novel jaw design conceived for the HL-LHC collimators, a new HiRadMat experiment, named "HRMT36-MultiMat", is scheduled for autumn 2017. Its objective is to determine the behaviour under high intensity proton beams of a broad range of materials relevant for collimatorsand beam interceptingdevices, thin-film coatings and advanced equipment. The test benchfeatures 16 separate target stations, each hosting various specimens, allowing the exploration of complex phenomena such as dynamic strength, internal damping, nonlinearities due to anisotropic inelasticity and inhomogeneity, effects of energy deposition and radiation on coatings. This paper details the main technical solutions and engineering calculations for the design of the test benchand of the specimens, the candidate target materials and the instrumentation system.