On the computation of the disruption forces in tokamaks

Abstract

The currents and forces induced in the tokamak vacuum vessel (wall) during the disruption are calculated for different values of wall resistivity. Several consequences and new developments are derived from the general result that the global disruption force acting on the perfectly conducting wall must be exactly opposite to the similar force acting on the plasma, which is inherently small in tokamaks. This theoretical prediction is tested and confirmed here for the ITER tokamak with disruption modelled as the fast thermal quench followed by slower current quench that develops into the vertical displacement event. The plasma is simulated by the evolutionary equilibrium code CarMa0NL. One of the results is that the computed integral force on a perfectly conducting wall is zero at each instant during a disruption. This in turn highlights the importance of having good models for the plasma (in which the equilibrium constraint is explicitly imposed) and for the structures (able to correctly describe the induced currents and the resistive effects). The dependence of the disruption force on the magnetic field penetration through the wall is demonstrated. Also the concept of a disruption force damper is proposed, able to ‘absorb’ a significant part of the force that would arise on a resistive wall during a disruption.