Development of a Two-Dimensional Simplified Tool for the Analysis of the Cooling of the ITER TF Winding Pack

Abstract

The cooling of the ITER toroidal field (TF) coils winding pack is guaranteed by the circulation of supercritical helium (He) in seven hydraulic circuits corresponding to the Nb3Sn cable in conduit conductors, and in 74 channels devoted to the cooling of the stainless steel case supporting the winding pack. A tool entirely developed inside ANSYS with the APDL language has been created with the aim of computing the temperature distribution in the TF winding pack in different poloidal locations. The tool also allows the assessment of the He temperature during plasma operation in the case cooling channels. The considered heat load is the volumetric nuclear heating computed with the MCNP code in 32 poloidal segments of a TF coil. For each segment, a two-dimensional (2-D) finite-element model is built and a thermal analysis carried out by applying the corresponding heat load, whereas a 1-D thermal-hydraulic code solves the helium transport inside the structure. Steady-state analyses have been done considering the baseline pancake wound configuration. In a second step, a preliminary transient analysis has been carried out, considering the actual ramp up and ramp down of the nuclear heating.