Argonne engineers develop one-of-a-kind instruments and facilities for scientific discovery

Scientists work to push the frontiers of human knowledge, often pursuing answers to questions no one’s asked before. To make their discoveries, they need engineers to design custom and often never-before-seen equipment, facilities and technologies.

A group of engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is uniquely equipped to design, model and install experimental systems that enable pioneering scientific research.

As part of Argonne’s Experimental Operations and Facilities (EOF) division, the Engineering Services group partners with scientists at Argonne and institutions across the globe to conceptualize and design accelerators, advanced nuclear reactors, high energy physics detectors and more. Their work has contributed to some of the largest scientific projects in recent history.

“We are an adventurous group willing to tackle projects without precedent.” — Argonne engineer Jeff White

“We are a collaborative resource for scientists, incorporating decades of experience to bring their experimental visions to life,” said Victor Guarino, Argonne engineer and manager of the Engineering Services group.

The discovery’s in the details 

The Engineering Services group works on several massive, landmark scientific collaborations, developing precise instruments, sophisticated control systems and robust infrastructure to meet demanding requirements.

For example, the group is contributing to the design of multiple aspects of the forthcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) led by DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). The experiment will study fundamental particles called neutrinos by sending a beam of them through the Earth from Fermilab in Illinois to a massive underground detector in South Dakota. The neutrino beam will be produced using a particle accelerator at Fermilab.

Once completed, the DUNE experiment could help answer questions about the nature of our universe, including why it consists of so much more matter than antimatter. But before scientists can pursue answers to these big, existential questions through experiments, engineers must first answer a myriad of questions like, ​“How will we fit several massive, radiation-proof doors into the building?” This is one of the tasks of EOF engineer Jeff White.

“When neutrinos are created at Fermilab, there is radiation generated,” said White. ​“My role is to design and plan for the installation of shield doors to protect workers from this radiation while the beam is on.”

There will be eight shield doors in total, each made of solid steel. The largest door will be 20 feet tall and weigh 30 tons, or as much as a humpback whale. Installing some of the doors is tricky, since their final locations are in small, interior rooms without crane access.

“This takes a lot of discussion and planning with riggers about how to lift them into position,” said White, who designed one-of-a-kind machines for the structural steel industry prior to his role at Argonne. ​“We are an adventurous group willing to tackle projects without precedent. It’s up to us to carefully design the system to be safe, reliable and economical.”

EOF engineers are also designing a crucial component of the DUNE detector in South Dakota. The seven-story detector’s large volume will be filled with liquid argon. When neutrinos hit the argon, the collision will produce charged particles that will travel to one side of the detector to be collected as electricity by an array of wires. Scientists can deduce the paths and features of the neutrinos based on information from the wires.

Guarino and his team are designing and drafting a component of the detector, called a cathode plane assembly (CPA), which will produce the strong electric field needed to draw the charged particles to the wires. To produce the field, the CPA holds 180,000 volts across the detector — 1,500 times the voltage supplied by a standard U.S. outlet.

“Vic and his team have a lot of experience with large, complex systems,” said Stephen Magill, a physicist in Argonne’s High Energy Physics division and coordinator for the CPA component for DUNE. ​“They are also regularly ahead of schedule. The CPA was the first component ready for both DUNE detector prototypes that have been developed in preparation for the final detector.”

One-stop-shop for scientific engineering 

The EOF group comprises roughly a dozen engineers. This team seamlessly translates complex requirements into reliable designs across many fields of science.

“We are able to apply expansive capabilities to a multitude of projects because we aren’t bound by a single industry or scientific field,” said Nick Wozniak, an EOF engineer and jack-of-many-trades. Wozniak is frequently tapped for his experience with modeling and analysis, nuclear energy systems, and civil and structural engineering.

For instance, he works with DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory staff to assess the safety features of a particular type of nuclear reactor for clean energy production. Leveraging his unique combination of skills, he analyzes the mechanical responses of the reactors under different operating conditions.

In addition to working across disciplines, EOF engineers are equipped to provide support for experiments at every stage, from defining a scope of work, to drafting and design, to fabrication and finite element analysis. And because of their familiarity with scientific projects, they are able to ask the right questions upfront to avoid delays down the line.

“You name it, we’ve got it,” said Guarino. ​“We’re a one-stop shop for hire with flexible staffing arrangements that can support an experiment from beginning to end.”

An explorer’s approach

EOF engineers are driven by a desire to understand and create, and they bring a perspective to experiments that complements that of the scientists with whom they work.

“We approach these collaborations with a curiosity about the science and technology involved,” said EOF engineer Dean Walters, who has 45 years of experience with vacuum systems. Walters was part of the team that designed Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source, a large X-ray synchrotron and DOE Office of Science user facility. ​“I want to understand the relationships and mechanisms at play, especially as they relate to solving unique design challenges.”

Exploring uncharted territory in science and technology can bring the work of EOF engineers into extreme realms. ​“Many of our projects are not ones you’d generally see in private industry,” said EOF engineer Phil Strons. ​“National labs use everything on the periodic table, so we have experience with unusual materials and deal with radiation and extreme temperatures and pressures.”

For example, EOF engineer Allen Zhao supports the Inner Tracker Upgrade of the ATLAS detector at the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Large Hadron Collider. Zhao developed a part of the system that helps the detector stay cool despite the relentless heat generated by readout electronics and particle sensors. He found a way to weld multiple titanium tubes together so that, in essence, the detector is cooled by a single pipe. This was a challenge that took over two years, full-time, to solve.

“This is delicate work, but the welding — everything — is very reliable and will cool the upgrade tracker for its expected lifetime of 15 years,” Zhao said. ​“I can sleep well at night.”

The EOF group offers flexible staffing and welcomes both short- and long-term engagements. To learn more about their services, contact Victor Guarino (vjg@​anl.​gov). 

About the Advanced Photon Source

The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the world’s most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research. These X-rays are ideally suited for explorations of materials and biological structures; elemental distribution; chemical, magnetic, electronic states; and a wide range of technologically important engineering systems from batteries to fuel injector sprays, all of which are the foundations of our nation’s economic, technological, and physical well-being. Each year, more than 5,000 researchers use the APS to produce over 2,000 publications detailing impactful discoveries, and solve more vital biological protein structures than users of any other X-ray light source research facility. APS scientists and engineers innovate technology that is at the heart of advancing accelerator and light-source operations. This includes the insertion devices that produce extreme-brightness X-rays prized by researchers, lenses that focus the X-rays down to a few nanometers, instrumentation that maximizes the way the X-rays interact with samples being studied, and software that gathers and manages the massive quantity of data resulting from discovery research at the APS.

This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.