Tcs tests and performance assessment of the ITER toroidal field model coil (phase II)

The tests of the toroidal field model coil (TFMC) were completed in 2002 in the TOSKA facility of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany. Operation reached a combined 80 kA in the TFMC and 16 kA in the LCT coil, resulting in a peak electromechanical load very close to that expected in the full-size ITER TF coils (800 kN/m). Here we concentrate on the measurements of the current sharing temperature T_cs of the TFMC conductor, possibly the highlight of the whole test campaign. These tests were performed by increasing in steps the helium inlet temperature T_in in double pancake DP1, resulting in an increasing normal voltage V across the DP1.1 and DP1.2 conductors, and were repeated for several combinations of currents in the TFMC and in the LCT coil. The analysis of the V - T_in characteristic by means of the M&M code allows to self-consistently deriving an estimate of T_cs, as well as an indirect assessment of the "average" strain state in the conductor. The TFMC isolated strand has also been very recently characterized at different applied uniaxial strain, and preliminary results indicate a stronger reduction of carrying capacity compared to the extrapolation from Summers scaling used in the analysis so far. As a consequence, the performance of the TFMC conductor, as preliminarily re-evaluated here, appears more in line with the strand performance than in previous analysis, although a BI-dependent "degradation" is still present.