Modal response of 4-rod type radio frequency quadrupole linac

This paper deals with the analysis and experimental study of natural frequencies of vibration of a 4-rod type radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linear accelerator. The eigenvalue analysis of the structure has been done both analytically (multispan beam concept) as well as using blocked Lanczos eigenvalue finite element solver with an ability to extract the rigid body modes. This has been done in the mechanical design phase to find the level of agreement between the output of simplified analytical analysis results and the output of a commercial finite element method (FEM) solver, since a full scale RFQ structure is too complex to handle analytically. Experimental validation of the analysis results has been done on the physical 1.7 m RFQ at the installation site. The experimental data obtained were later analyzed and found to be in close agreement with the predicted frequencies in the lower frequency ranges. It gets more and more deviated in the higher frequency ranges. Also some frequencies were observed during experimentation, which were not found in the finite element analysis results. The source of those frequencies are to be further investigated as it may play a predominant role in the design high quality factor beam line cavities for higher operational efficiency.