Design analysis of the support structure stressed by large superconducting coils for a plasma fusion experiment

A long term task of design analysis for a prototype machine, used in plasma fusion research, is described in this paper. The core part of each plasma fusion experiment, the superconducting coils and their surrounding structure, are under consideration here. Specificity and complexity of the task are discussed as well. The R&D activities on the structural system of the experimental device were done in a time spread of over 10 years. For the numerical simulation and analysis of the phenomena inside the structure, the ADINA code was chosen right from start. This decision was mainly guided considering the efficiency of ADINA in solving nonlinear problems with a large number of degrees of freedom. The ADINA code is still most commonly used for numerical simulations on the current project which is presently in the state of manufacturing. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.