In this paper the results of coupled thermal-mechanical Finite Element (FE) analysis on the design of a fusion reactor divertor cooling finger are presented. Beside its main purpose, to remove alpha particles, helium and other impurities from the plasma stream, a divertor has to remove approximately 15% of the total thermal power of the fusion reactor. The aim of the analysis is to assess the influence of a number of physical properties of the brazing layer (BL) of the cooling finger on the overall thermal-mechanical stress field of the cooling finger. The BL provides bonding between thimble and tile, the two main parts of the cooling finger. In nearly all numerical thermal-mechanical analyses on cooling finger designs described in literature the BL is neglected in the modelling process. In the presented FE analyses the BL is included and parametric studies are performed with the aim to assess the influence of the thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, Young’s modulus and thickness of the BL on the overall thermal-mechanical stress field of the cooling finger. The thermal conductivity of the BL has significant influence on both the temperature and stress distribution of the cooling finger, whereas the thermal expansion influences the stress distribution of the cooling finger locally. The Young’s modulus has negligible influence and a thicker BL fosters the observed effects of the above physical properties.

MARTIN Oliver;  SIMONOVSKI Igor; 

2013-01-10

Nuclear Society of Slovenia

JRC77196

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC77196,