Bolted Ribs Analysis for the ITER Vacuum Vessel using Finite Element Submodelling Techniques

Abstract

The ITER Vacuum Vessel (VV) primary function is to enclose the plasmas produced by the ITER Tokamak. Since it acts as the first radiological barrier of the plasma, it is classified as a class 2 welded box structure, according to RCC-MR 2007. The VV is made of an inner and an outer D-shape, 60mm-thick double shell connected through thick massive bars (housings) and toroidal and poloidal structural stiffening ribs. In order to provide neutronic shielding to the ex-vessel components, the space between shells is filled with borated steel plates, called In-Wall Shielding (IWS) blocks, and water. In general, these blocks are connected to the IWS ribs which are connected to adjacent housings.The development of a Finite Element model of the ITER VV including all its components in detail is unaffordable from the computational point of view due to the large number of degrees of freedom it would require. This limitation can be overcome by using submodelling techniques to simulate the behaviour of the bolted ribs assemblies. Submodelling is a Finite Element technique which allows getting more accurate results in a given region of a coarse model by generating an independent, finer model of the region under study.In this paper, the methodology and several simulations of the VV bolted ribs assemblies using submodelling techniques are presented. A stress assessment has been performed for the elements involved in the assembly considering possible types of failure and including stress classification and categorization techniques to analyse the critical sections. In particular, studies to optimise the number of bolts on each specific VV area have been developed to assess the compliance with RCC-MR 2007 requirements. It is shown as well that the submodelling technique is a powerful tool to avoid the current computational limitations.