Design analysis of the hinge support for the ITER vacuum vessel

In order to verify design feasibility and structural integrity of a hinge type support for the ITER VV support system, the design analysis has been performed in detail, which includes heat transfer, elastic stress and limit analyses. The structural analyses were performed to confirm the transfer of forces through the supporting structure and to determine the maximum allowable loads according to the RCC-MR. From the heat transfer analysis for VV baking stage, total heat flow into the support was obtained to confirm the thermal heat flux into the cryostat under baking condition. In addition, the design modification was also discussed to enhance the structural performance of the supporting system.     

Mock-up of a support structure of the ITER vacuum vessel

The ITER vacuum vessel support systems located in the lower level sustain loads in radial and vertical direction. The support system consists of various sub-components like a linkage system, a pot type bearing, a vertical rope, a toroidal constraint, and dampers. In order to examine performance of the mechanism of the system, a mock-up of the linkage system which is comparatively complicated has been manufactured. Various fabrication methods were studied through the mock-up fabrication, and also several tests have been done using the mock-up. Those include assembly study, stroke test, static load test and fatigue test. In the full stroke test, the functional mechanism of the support structure has been demonstrated. In the structural test, the strength of the all components is evaluated by measuring reaction and strain of each component. In order to investigate the effect of tolerances and the damage due to the tests, the performance tests were conducted before and after the static and fatigue tests. The backlash for each stage is found from measured displacement hysteresis. As results of those tests, the performance of the ITER vacuum vessel support structure as well as its structural integrity has been evaluated in this study.     

IWR-solution for the ITER vacuum vessel assembly

The assembly of ITER vacuum vessel (VV) is still a very big challenge as the process can only be done from inside the VV. The welding of the VV assembly is carried out using the dedicated robotic systems. The main functions of the robots are: (i) measuring the actual space between every two sectors, (ii) positioning of the 150 kg splice plates between the sector shells, (iii) welding the splice plates to the sector shells, (iv) NDT of the welds, (v) repairing, including machining of the welds, (vi) He-leak tests of the welds, and (vii) the non-planned functions that may turn out. This paper presents a reasonable method to assemble the ITER VV. In this article, one parallel mobile robot, running on the track rail fixed on the wall inside the VV, is designed and tested. The assembling process, carried out by the mobile robot together with the welding robot, is presented.     

Progress of ITER vacuum vessel

Design modifications were implemented in the vacuum vessel (VV) baseline design in 2011–2012 for finalization. The modifications are mostly due to interface components, such as support rails and feedthroughs for the in-vessel coils (IVC). Manufacturing designs are being developed at the domestic agencies (DAs) based on the baseline design. The VV support design was also finalized and tests on scale mock-ups are under preparation. Design of the in-wall shielding (IWS) has progressed, considering the assembly methods and the required tolerances. Further modifications are required to be consistent with the DAs’ manufacturing designs. Dynamic tests on the inter-modular and stub keys to support the blanket modules are being performed to measure the dynamic amplification factor (DAF). An in-service inspection (ISI) plan has been developed and R&D was launched for ISI. Conceptual design of the VV instrumentation has been developed. The VV baseline design was approved by the agreed notified body (ANB) in accordance with the French Nuclear Pressure Equipment Order procedure.     

Redesign of gravity support system for ITER construction

In this article, we describe an alternative design for ITER gravity support, which use various connection bolts and shear keys to assemble all the parts, rather than welding them together. The finite element model (FEM) analysis of this structure shows that the maximum static stress intensity of all the components is within the stress limitation under ITER operation condition. No terrible stress concentration and large deformation would occur during normal operation and abnormal operation. The buckling analysis shows that the new designed structure is stable, and no destructive damage would occur. The fatigue simulation calculation shows that the fatigue life is up to 1,361,445 repetitions for normal operation, which is far larger than that of the ITER 30,000 times discharge requirement. Therefore, it can be concluded that the new designed structure is safe and can be utilized in the ITER construction.     

Design progress of the ITER vacuum vessel and ports

Recent progress of the ITER vacuum vessel (VV) design is presented. As construction approaches, the VV design has been improved, simplified and developed in more detail. The VV support system has been improved, and the design of the VV shells and the blanket supports has been simplified. The VV design simplifications have been driven by manufacturing requirements and recommendations resulting from cooperation with industry. To simplify the manufacture/maintenance of the port structures, a single wall concept is used for some ports. Structural analyses have been performed to validate all design modifications.     

Final design of ITER vacuum vessel thermal shield

The final design of ITER vacuum vessel thermal shield (VVTS), which is planned to be procured completely by Korea, has been implemented after the procurement arrangement was signed. In this paper, the design and the supporting analysis are described for the key components of the VVTS such as joint, panel, support, and stopper. The VVTS design is revised and finalized based on the manufacturing feasibility, interface requirement and assemble feasibility. The inboard and the outboard supports of VVTS are designed in detail considering structural rigidity and assemble feasibility. The shape of in-pit joint, which is installed every 40° sector in toroidal direction for compensation of possible misalignment during sector assembly, is determined. Three types of joints are developed in accordance with their locations and assemble feasibilities are checked through the R&D. Stopper design is developed in order to prevent direct contact against adjacent components such as vacuum vessel and magnets. Structural rigidity of the whole VVTS is also validated by finite element analysis under various kinds of operating conditions, such as deadweight, electro-magnetic load, seismic load and load combinations.     

Structural analyses for equatorial and lower ports of the ITER vacuum vessel

To investigate the structural integrity of the ITER vacuum vessel (VV) and ports, the structural analyses of the regular equatorial and the lower remote handling (RH) ports have been performed. The advanced design of the equatorial regular port adopting a pure friction type flange has been recommended as a reference design by the ITER International Organization. The structural integrity of the equatorial port flange, sealing unit, and connecting duct has been reviewed by conducting nonlinear finite element analyses. The advanced design of the regular equatorial port flange with proper pretension is acceptable in the structural design point of view.From the local analyses for a connecting duct and a sealing unit, it has been found that the stresses are less than the allowable values.The structural analyses of the lower RH port have been also performed to verify the capability for supporting the VV. Since high local stress occurs at the gusset and supporting block, the case study for the lower port has been conducted to mitigate the stress concentration and to modify the component design. The strength of the lower RH port structures can be improved by the design modification of poloidal and toroidal gusset.     

Thermo-hydraulic design verification of the neutral beam liner for the ITER vacuum vessel

The ITER vacuum vessel has upper, equatorial and lower port structures used for equipment installation, utility feedthroughs, vacuum pumping and access inside the vessel for maintenance. A neutral beam (NB) port of equatorial ports provides a path of neutral beam for plasma heating and current drive. An internal duct liner is built in the NB ports, and copper alloy panels are placed in the top and bottom of the liner to protect duct surface from high-power heat loads. Global NB liner models for the upper panel and the lower panel have been developed, and flow field and conjugate heat transfer analyses have been performed to find out pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of the liner. Heat loads such as NB power, volumetric heating and surface heat flux are applied in the analyses for beam steering and misalignment conditions. For the upper panel, it is found that unbalanced flow distribution occurs in each flow path, and this causes poor heat transfer performance as well. In order to improve flow distribution and to reduce pressure losses, hydraulic analyses for modified cooling path schemes have been carried out, and design recommendations are made based on the analysis results. For the lower panel, local flow distributions and pressure drop values at each header and branch of the tube are obtained by applying design coolant flow rate. Together with the coolant flow field, temperature and heat transfer coefficient distributions are also acquired from the analyses. Based on the analysis results, it is concluded that the lower panel for the NB liner is relatively well designed even though the given heat loads are very severe.     

Design finalization and start of construction of ITER vacuum vessel

The vacuum vessel (VV) design is being finalized including interface components, such as the support rails and feedthroughs of coils for mitigation of edge localized modes (ELM) and vertical stabilization (VS) of the plasma (ELM/VS coils). It was necessary to make adjustments in the locations of the blanket supports and manifolds to accommodate the design modifications in the ELM/VS coils. The lower port gussets were reinforced to keep a sufficient margin under the increased VV load conditions. The VV support design is being finalized as well, with an emphasis on structure simplification. The design of the in-wall shielding (IWS) has progressed, considering assembly and required tolerances. The layout of ferritic steel plates and borated steel plates will be optimized based on on-going toroidal field ripple analysis. The VV instrumentation was defined in detail. Strain gauges, thermocouples, displacement meters and accelerometers shall be installed to monitor the status of the VV in normal and off-normal conditions to confirm all safety functions are performed correctly. The ITER VV design was preliminarily approved, and the VV materials including 316L(N) IG were already qualified by the Agreed Notified Body (ANB) according to the procedure of Nuclear Pressure Equipment Order.     

Software design of the hybrid robot machine for ITER vacuum vessel assembly and maintenance

A specific software design is elaborated in this paper for the hybrid robot machine used for the ITER vacuum vessel (VV) assembly and maintenance. In order to provide the multi-machining-function as well as the complicated, flexible and customizable GUI designing satisfying the non-standardized VV assembly process in one hand, and in another hand guarantee the stringent machining precision in the real-time motion control of robot machine, a client–server-control software architecture is proposed, which separates the user interaction, data communication and robot control implementation into different software layers. Correspondingly, three particular application protocols upon the TCP/IP are designed to transmit the data, command and status between the client and the server so as to deal with the abundant data streaming in the software. In order not to be affected by the graphic user interface (GUI) modification process in the future experiment in VV assembly working field, the real-time control system is realized as a stand-alone module in the architecture to guarantee the controlling performance of the robot machine. After completing the software development, a milling operation is tested on the robot machine, and the result demonstrates that both the specific GUI operability and the real-time motion control performance could be guaranteed adequately in the software design.     

Research on 3D loading system for ITER gravity support prototype

The objective and importance of structural performance tests for the ITER gravity support prototype were described. The model of the gravity support system was established. Based on the analysis of loads, the torque transformation method and the 3D loading method for prototypes under complex load conditions were proposed. The proposed methods overcome 3D loading problems in the case of the complex load cases. The structural design schemes of the mixed 3D loading system with hydraulic bolt tensioners and the 3D loading system with bidirectional hydraulic cylinders were discussed. Two design schemes were compared and analyzed. Based on the finite element method, the numerical analysis of the 3D loading framework for bidirectional hydraulic cylinders was done. Results show the proposed 3D loading system meets the performance test requirements of the ITER gravity support prototype and should be preferred for the prototype loading experiment.     

ITER vacuum vessel: Design review and start of procurement process

The ITER vacuum vessel (VV) is one of the most critical components in the ITER project. It is on the critical path in the construction schedule and it is also a safety important class component (SIC), providing the first confinement barrier.As a result of reviews and the latest physics analyses, design requirements have been updated (e.g. ELM/VS coils) and a few design changes have to be implemented. This paper covers the updates of the VV vertical and horizontal EM load conditions during asymmetric VDEs, the design analysis of the ELM/VS coils and their interfaces to the VV, the blanket manifold design and the preparation of the technical specification in preparation for the procurement arrangement to be signed.     

Chatter suppression methods of a robot machine for ITER vacuum vessel assembly and maintenance

In the process of assembly and maintenance of ITER vacuum vessel (ITER VV), various machining tasks including threading, milling, welding-defects cutting and flexible hose boring are required to be performed from inside of ITER VV by on-site machining tools. Robot machine is a promising option for these tasks, but great chatter (machine vibration) would happen in the machining process. The chatter vibration will deteriorate the robot accuracy and surface quality, and even cause some damages on the end-effector tools and the robot structure itself. This paper introduces two vibration control methods, one is passive and another is active vibration control. For the passive vibration control, a parallel mechanism is presented to increase the stiffness of robot machine; for the active vibration control, a hybrid control method combining feedforward controller and nonlinear feedback controller is introduced for chatter suppression. A dynamic model and its chatter vibration phenomena of a hybrid robot is demonstrated. Simulation results are given based on the proposed hybrid robot machine which is developed for the ITER VV assembly and maintenance.     

Analyses of the ITER vacuum vessel with the use of a new modelling technique

The on-going design development of the ITER vacuum vessel (VV) has been supported and accompanied recently by extensive analytical studies of its different structural aspects. The use of a newly developed parametric model of the ITER VV sector with port structures has enabled various detailed assessments of this structure. Implementation of new features in the model and new approach for its generation has eased updates and modifications of the model, reducing the time necessary to introduce them into the model and allowing it to keep pace with discussions on planned design changes.     

Design assessment for manufacturability of supporting structures for IWS and ELM coil of ITER vacuum vessel

A vacuum vessel is one of the core facilities of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and basically all-welded structure. Korea is responsible for the procurement of sector 1 and 6 of the main vessel. Accordingly, the design review for the fabrication is in progress by ITER Korea and Hyundai Heavy Industries. Due to anticipated manufacturing problems such as the welding distortion, the design of some components of main vessel, IWS (In-Wall Shield) supporting rib and ELM (Edge Localized Mode) coil support, needs to be modified. To release the risk of welding distortion, the welding method called “bridge type” is suggested and the shape of weld joint is adjusted to secure the manufacturability of the issued components. The elastic and limit analyses with fatigue evaluation have been performed under the most critical loading condition to verify the structural integrity of modified design. Analysis results show that the proposed designs meet the design criteria of RCC-MR. The design deviation requests have been submitted to ITER Organization and ANB (Agreed Notified Body) for approval and their verification is currently in progress.     

The evaluation on the effect of shell thickness reduction for ITER vacuum vessel sector 1 and 6

The structural analyses of vacuum vessel have been performed to investigate the effect of shell thickness reduction on structural integrity. The finite element models of vacuum vessel considering original design and thickness reduction have been developed. The expected maximum thickness reduction possibly caused by forming and bending processes during fabrication was applied to the curved region of the analysis models. The linear elastic and nonlinear limit analyses have been performed. The structural integrity of main vessel including lower port stub extension has been verified in accordance with the requirements of RCC-MR. It is concluded that the inner and outer shells of main vessel still have enough strength margins under pressure and VDE (Vertical Displacement Event) load conditions in spite of thickness reduction. These results have been reviewed and approved by ITER Organization and ANB (Agreed Notified Body).     

Parametric neutronic analysis of HCLL blanket for DEMO fusion reactor utilizing vacuum vessel ITER FDR design

Three-dimensional parametric neutronics calculations using the Monte Carlo code MCNP-4C have been performed for a DEMO-type reactor based on the Helium-Cooled Lithium-Lead (HCLL) blanket. The aim of the analysis was to minimize the radial blanket thickness, while ensuring tritium self-sufficiency and to assess the shielding performance of the reactor in terms of the radiation loads to the super-conducting toroidal field (TF) coils. It was found that tritium self-sufficiency can be achieved with a breeder zone thickness reduced to no more than 55 cm at a ⁶Li enrichment of 90%. Assuming a ⁶Li enrichment of 60%, a breeder zone thickness of 60 cm is required to achieve the target TBR of 1.10 which is assumed to be sufficient to cover potential tritium losses and uncertainties. With regard to the shielding performance it was found that the design limits for the radiation loads to the TF-coil can be met with radial blanket thicknesses of 75 cm, 60 cm and 55 cm utilizing a two-component shield of Eurofer steel and tungsten carbide between the breeder zone and the vacuum vessel. The blanket variants with larger radial breeder zone show better shielding performances due to the reduced Eurofer shielding material acting as gamma radiation emitter in between the breeder zone and the vacuum vessel. In particular the radiation dose absorbed in the Epoxy insulator was shown to be the most critical quantity in this regard.     

A study of the influence of electron beam welding sequences on the ITER vacuum vessel prototype VATS

This paper presents a detailed finite element simulation of the welds of the prototype Vessel Advanced Technology Segment (VATS) by electron-beam welding. The flexible support housings are reinforcing cylinders of the pressure boundary of the ITER vacuum vessel. They connect inner and outer shells. Eight different simulation sequences were carried out to explain the different mechanisms that drive the distortion process during welding and to lead to an optimum sequence which minimizes the final distortions. The simulations were used to guide the manufacture of the final sequence of the VATS.