The loosing mechanism of screw bolts on the first wall graphite tiles in EAST

Abstract

The first wall in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) has used many graphite tiles to face the plasma. All graphite ties have been mounted on heat sink using screw bolts which had been preloaded to produce clamp force. The clamp force is very important to keep the graphite tiles on the surface of the heat sink tightly because the heat flux will cross this contacting surface in a small thermal resistor. Without the clamp force the small gap between graphite tiles and heat sink will lead thermal power cannot be carried away by cooling water. The worse is some bolts turned out with the loss of clamp force. From the mathematical models the process of the loss of clamp force has been studied. Research results explain how the different thermal expansion of three members of the screw joint leads to the clamp force decrease to zero under temperature rise and external force and how the stiffness affect the relationship between the clamp force and temperature. The research also gets the critical temperature point that the clamp force can remain above zero. Research results indicated this screw joint is absolute to lose their clamp force during the EAST running so that the bolt joints should be redesign to improve its reliability.