sPHENIX discussion of the superconducting solenoid

["Yip, Kin" <kinyip AT bnl.gov>]

Hello Rob,

I saw where the oil leak is.  ( Your picture , Sean Stoll , Ed O'Brien et. al. all pointed me to it. )  Later on, I showed  Eric O'Connor (Cryo group) who owns those roughing pumps that some of us were

suspecting, where the oil leak is at the bottom of sPHENIX, quite in the center (between south-north) and near  the East side.     I touched the "oil" myself and so did Eric.

But I'm not sure whether you know where the roughing pumps are.  They're not formally even on the sPHENIX platform but actually on the west deck attached to the south-western corner of the

sPHENIX upper platform.  I walked over there (with Eric) to take another look to convince myself.   The oil pans under the pumps have no oil and as you know, the floor (of the platform and the west deck)

are all porous.   To me, if there is any oil from those pump, the oil will drop the floor (2 floors down).  

All the cryogenic and vacuum facility of the magnet all lie on the south end of the platform on the 3^rd floor.

Ed initially had the theory that oil would travel far.  But after we showed Ed where the roughing pumps are, he also didn't feel that great about his "transportation theory" 🙂

Rob Michnoff ( who knows very well where those pumps are ) also immediately ruled out those roughing pumps as they're really far and the oil has to do a lot of turns and penetration to get to the bottom of

sPHENIX.

But later, Ed noticed a small bottle (of oil or something ?!) on the 2^nd floor of the platform, which is connected by pipes to some sPHENIX detector that one couldn't tell ( as the pipes quickly become untraceable).  I went to

take a look myself and every minute or so, you could see bubbling inside the transparent bottle.  I attach the photo when it was bubbling.   ( I just needed to wait < 1 minute 🙂 )

I asked Frank Toldo and he told me that those are gas pipes for TPC (?) and you probably placed that bottle over there ?   I think there is oil involved with the gas transfer (to TPC), right ?  This is more suspicious

than the remote roughing pump, right ?

About the "Gauge Theory" :

I went upstairs for the 3^rd time to check.  There are some gauges for the Cryo system and most of them are at the south-western corner of the platform (next to the huge Cold-Box).  I couldn't find any oil

either.  And Eric from the Cryo group told us that they've done leak check multiple times before our did the magnet mapping --- there were a lot of leak checking when we first hooked up the Valvebox

with the Cold-Box last October or so.   Eric seemed to imply that if there is oil leaking into the pipes, the cryogenic system would be screwed up and not work etc.  The "Gauge Theory" ( whether Abelian or non-Abelian 😆 ) doesn't seem to work here,

Anyway, thank you for providing the fun (of trying to be Sherlock Holmes) this evening ... whereas the carbon-fiber tube has been inserted into the bore of sPHENIX and Rob/Frank/Peter all are there

watching the survey guys working ...

Kin

---

From: Robert P. Pisani <pisani AT bnl.gov>
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2023 4:40 PM
To: Yip, Kin <kinyip AT bnl.gov>
Cc: O'Brien, Edward <eobrien AT bnl.gov>; Mills, James A <mills AT bnl.gov>; Hamblen, Peter <phamblen AT bnl.gov>
Subject: Re: Oil under OHcal

 

OK,  figured out what itis.  well pretty sure.   glycerin    Or something that is glycerin based. I dug up mineral oil.  Its clear but has a very faint odor.   Pump oil as well.  

glycerin is clear, completely odorless and feels exactly like what we found under the OHCAL.   

So a possible source.  Broken pressure gauge.  Any gauge that is near a pump will be glycerin filled to prevent vibration damage.  They can leak and the gauge looks fine.  SOr maybe there is something filled with glycerin.

On Fri, Feb 3, 2023 at 3:29 PM Yip, Kin <kinyip AT bnl.gov> wrote:

Hi, Rob,

 

After I finished my meeting, I just talked with Eric and he’s going to take a look.

Not sure whether he can figure out anything today …

 

Kin

 

From: Robert P. Pisani <pisani AT bnl.gov>
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2023 2:31 PM
To: Yip, Kin <kinyip AT bnl.gov>
Cc: O'Brien, Edward <eobrien AT bnl.gov>; Mills, James A <mills AT bnl.gov>
Subject: Oil under OHcal

 

Hi Kin,

 

Wondering if you can do some investigation for us.  We found what looks like clear, odorless oil dripping from the OHCAL.  Its coming from in-between sector 5 in the bay between racks 1E2 and 1W2. 

Peter and I spent an hour today inspecting the top of the OHCAL and looking under the plates on the 3rd level and found nothing.  It is continuing to drip from the detector (very slowly)

 

I also spoke to Andy Warkentien since some of his guys were up there monday/tuesday, but they didn't use any fluid on the carriage and work on the platform on the West wall.  

 

Can you investigate this a bit.  Andy suggested maybe the vacuum group.  To me, it looks like mineral or pump oil.  

 

Rob

 

 

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Robert Pisani
Senior Physics Associate 

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Bldg 510C

Upton, NY 11973

Phone:631-344-5301  Room 2-206
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\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~

Robert Pisani
Senior Physics Associate 

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Bldg 510C

Upton, NY 11973

Phone:631-344-5301  Room 2-206
\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~\~/~

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