Thermal and mechanical analysis of PFC for SST-1 tokamak

The plasma facing components (PFC) are an important part of Steady State Superconducting Tokamak (SST-1) design. The main consideration in the design of the PFC is the steady state heat removal of up to 1 MW/m² and to explore long pulse operation and high temperature plasma. During steady-state operation, the average heat loads on divertor and passive stabilizers are expected to be 0.6 and 0.25 MW/m² respectively. Design considerations included 2-D steady state and transient tile temperature distribution and resulting thermal loads in PFC during plasma operation. Thermal analysis of the PFC is carried out with the purpose of evaluating the thermal mechanical behavior of PFC for SST-1 tokamak. Thermally induced stresses and strains in PFC were analyzed using finite element (FE) method, and the effect on stress and strain of different material used in PFC were examined and discussed in this paper.