ITER Central Solenoid support structure analysis

Abstract

The ITER Central Solenoid (CS) is comprised of six independent coils held together by a pre-compression support structure. This structure must provide enough preload to maintain sufficient coil-to-coil contact and interface load throughout the current pulse. End of burn (EOB) represents one of the most extreme time-points during the reference scenario when the currents in the CS3 coils oppose those of CS1 & CS2. The CS structure is performance limited by the room temperature static yield requirements needed to support the roughly 180 MN preload to resist coil separation during operation. This preload is applied by inner and external tie plates along the length of the coil stack by mechanical fastening methods utilizing Superbolt <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">®</sup> technology. The preloading structure satisfies the magnet structural design criteria of ITER and will be verified during mockup studies. The solenoid is supported from the bottom of the toroidal field (TF) coil casing in both the vertical radial directions. The upper support of the CS coil structure maintains radial registration with the TF coil in the event of vertical disruptions (VDE) loads and earthquakes. All of these structure systems are analyzed via a global finite element analysis (FEA). The model includes a complete sector of the TF coil and the CS coil/structure in one self-consistent analysis. The corresponding results and design descriptions are described in this report.