The pre-compression system of the toroidal field coils in ITER

Abstract

The toroidal field (TF) coils of ITER will undergo out-of-plane forces caused by the poloidal fields required to confine the plasma. These forces will be supported against overturning moments by links between the coils. In turn, these links consist of the inner intercoil structure (IIC), which is composed of two pairs (placed at the top and bottom part of the inboard leg) of four sets of poloidal shear keys inserted in slots between adjacent coils, and the outer intercoil structure (OIS) formed by four bands of shear panels on the outboard leg. The magnetic forces during energization of ITER would cause at IIC locations at toroidal gap between adjacent TF coils of 0.35 mm; during plasma operation this value could reach >1 mm causing a loosening of the keys and intensifying stress concentrations. This undesired effect will be suppressed by the application of a centripetal force of 70 MN/coil (35 MN at both the bottom and top part of the inboard leg of each of the 18 TF coils) that will be provided by two sets of three glass fibre/epoxy composite rings submitted to a toroidal hoop force of 100 MN/set. The calculated maximum stress in the rings will occur during the installation phase at room temperature, where the maximum radial elongation (∼25 mm) is required, and it reaches 1/5 of the composite presently estimated ultimate stress. The imposed elongation to reach that force and the lower Young's modulus of the composite compared with that of stainless steel will ease component tolerances and/or settlement effects in the final assembly. The paper describes the evolution in the design of the pre-compression system, from the conceptual phase when two circular cross-sections rings were considered to the present definitive one with three rectangular cross-section rings.