Welcome to the PH-DT-DI   Gas Project

The DT Gas Section provides support for the construction and operation of the LHC detector gas systems.

Following our mandate we are developing gas systems across the LHC detectors utilizing standardized designs where possible. It is quite obvious that a common  approach to gas technology and associated controls offers significant advantages for the LHC experiments and for CERN in the long term:

• Rationalize the gas system layouts throughout the LHC experiments and make best use of the resources and experiences available at CERN.
• Centralize the procurement of components optimizing the negotiations with industry.
• Provide consistent interfaces to zone safety and detector control systems.
• Enable common support and maintenance for 10 years of LHC operation
• Simplify future upgrades and modifications.

The approach proposed is to split the gas systems in functional modules as: supplies, mixer, purifier, distributions, gas separators, etc.; the design of these sub-systems can than be standardized and scaleable in size to meet the real physics requirements of the detectors.

Schematic layout of a typical gas system. The gas system modules distribute over the surface gas building, the underground service area and the underground experimental zones.

Integral part of the proposed gas system work are capital cost estimates for the construction of the gas systems and running cost estimates establishing the economical consequences of gas choices and possible need for gas recuperation of expensive gases.