HCPB TBM thermo mechanical design: Assessment with respect codes and standards and DEMO relevancy

Present status of the conceptual design of the EU test blanket systems

“…It is completed, for some ITER specific aspects by ITER structural design criteria for in-vessel components (SDC-IC). In this work [5,6] the reference load cases and the related rules for the assessment were defined, identifying at the same time the missing rules and the lack of characterization for the TBM EUROFER structural material. Three different loading conditions (LC) have been studied; the first one corresponds to normal operation during a typical D-T phase plasma pulse (LC1), the second to the typical power excursion occurring during a MARFE event (LC2) and the third one corresponds to the accidental pressurization of the box in case of internal LOCA (LC3).…”

The fundamental role of fluid dynamic analyses in the design of the solid EU Test Blanket Module

“…A correct evaluation of HTC in the manifold stages is important for the correct assessment of the TBM box structural behaviour. In the current design the rear region of the TBM box features high stresses [8] but secondary stress underestimation could be induced by implementing HTC values too far from the real ones. In the TBM design cycle with a simplified assumption (based on the Gnielinsky correlation) a constant HTC of 2000 W/m 2 K has been considered in the MF stages.…”

“…The HCPB TBM design has been extensively described in [7][8][9]. The HCPB TBM features a box structure (EUROFER as structural material): the U shaped FW is closed along the poloidal direction by the lateral Caps; an internal structure of horizontal and vertical Stiffening Grids (hSG and vSG, addressed as sub-components together with the Caps) defines the volume allocation for the Breeder Units (BUs).…”

“…starting from the preliminary design and neutronic analyses till the detailed fluid dynamic, thermal and structural analyses [7,8]. In the design assessment phase a fundamental role is played by the fluid dynamic analyses of the TBM sub-components and of the manifolds (MF) stages.…”

Non-linear failure analysis of HCPB Test Blanket Module

“…Thereby the elements only relevant for the thermal 0920-3796/$ -see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2012.02.086 Recent works [4][5][6] focused on the thermo mechanical performance of the preliminary design of the EU HCPB TBM, developed since 2007 in vertical orientation. As the elastic analyses performed within these works highlighted several portions of the TBM box as being highly stressed in steady state and transient operation, designers have produced an improved TBM version trying to solve the structural issues.…”