Pendulum support of the W7-X plasma vessel: Design, tests, manufacturing, assembly, critical aspects, status

•Plasma vessel support has to allow vertical adjustment and horizontal passive movement.•Planar sliding tables with PTFE do not fulfill all requirements.•Pendulums can fulfill all requirements.•Geometry and material of spherical bearings had to be optimized in calculations and tests.•Optimized pendu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fusion engineering and design 2014-10, Vol.89 (7-8), p.1820-1825
Main Authors: Missal, B., Leher, F., Schiller, T., Friedrich, P., Capriccioli, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assembly
Coils
Cryostat
Hydraulics
Pendulum
Pendulums
Plasma vessel
Polypropylenes
Stellarator
Superconductivity
Support
Three dimensional
Vessels
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Summary:•Plasma vessel support has to allow vertical adjustment and horizontal passive movement.•Planar sliding tables with PTFE do not fulfill all requirements.•Pendulums can fulfill all requirements.•Geometry and material of spherical bearings had to be optimized in calculations and tests.•Optimized pendulums were manufactured and assembled. The superconducting helical advanced stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is under construction at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany. The three dimensional shape of plasma will be generated by 50 non-planar magnetic coils. The plasma vessel geometry follows exactly this three dimensional shape of plasma. To ensure the superconductivity of coils a cryo vacuum has to be generated. Therefore the coils and their support structure are enclosed within the outer vessel. Plasma vessel, coil structures and outer vessel have to be supported separately. This paper will describe the vertical supports of plasma vessel which have to fulfill two special requirements, vertical adjustability and horizontal mobility. These two tasks will be carried out by plasma vessel supports (PVS) with hydraulic cylinders, special sliding tables during assembly and pendulum supports during operating phase. The paper will give an overview of design, calculation, tests, fabrication, assembly, critical aspects and status of PVS.
ISSN:0920-3796
1873-7196
DOI:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2014.03.005